Agree with this.
Kinda funny people barely playing 5E claiming fireball is broken. It was a B tier sowll in 3.5 abd it's worse now. One of tge better danage dealing spells but it's not a caster strength (damage).
IME Fireball is situationally awesome. Fireball is probably the best 3rd level spell when you have large numbers of enemies clumped together, with relatively low hps, who are immune to Frightenend and Charmed and not resistant to fire and there are no allies in the AOE. In that situation it can't be beat. In most other situations there are better spells.
It's more about teamwork. Caster sers up a foe via hold spell. Still have to kill it fast before the target saves.
There are two ways to play this IME. One is to do like you said, the other is just to take his actions away while you deal with other enemies.
This creates a conundrum. I cast Hold Person on 3 out of 5 Orogs. Do you attack the two that are still fighting or do you attack the Paralyzed ones who take critical damage with every melee hit?