Basically you seem to be saying either (a) you give permanent unguided choices and newbies get lost or (b) you give pure freedom and pure spells prepared for the newbies. I'm saying that both these are bad - but there is a middle way as indicated
I agree there is a middle way. I don't at all agree it's what you've suggested. The spell-lists for Sorcerers and the like are closer, but inconsistent (some have absolutely terrible spells on them, or all combat, or all non-combat). And the inability to experiment is a genuine problem imo.
And I consider this to be a subtle goalpost shift (and I disagree that Healing Word in specific isn't fun).
There's no goalposts, because this isn't that kind of discussion, so you can't shift something that isn't there. I'm trying to discuss how this actually works, not beat Tottenham 4-0.
My point is that all you have there are reactive healing spells. You're not disputing that. And when I say effective, sorry for the short-hand, but I personally include "being fun for the player" in that, and assumed others would. I kind of agree re: Healing Word, but it's still reactive spell which largely duplicates the healing usage of their Inspiration. They have two different abilities which do almost exactly the same thing, just one is a Reaction and the other a Bonus Action. It's not terrible, but it's not engaging (and is kind of clumsy design).
But with a core of effective (if dull) spells going for flash on top of that won't be a problem.
Hard disagree.
Dull but effective spells combined with cool but ineffective spells is absolutely a great way to get people to
quit a class. To get bored with a game. Particularly if the effective spells are primarily cast on other people.
I'm not saying this just to be difficult, to be clear, you're describing something that's happened
countless times in both videogames and TTRPGs. The character who has some boring-but-vital abilities, and has some cool abilities, but they don't work very well, so you need to focus on the boring-but-effective ones. Like, seriously a significant percentage of classes in early MMOs fit into this. Clerics and SPs in 2E fit that.
And people endlessly quit those classes or didn't want to play them.
So I'd say any set of baseline abilities must include some cool and effective abilities.
WotC didn't go with that though, they've gone with a Cleric/Druid-like option. I'm not sure if that's the best choice, but I can say it'll definitely work.