of course I'm a little sad...
favoring mechanism over flavor... Some of the greatest moment I know of 2e was about those wishes : depending of the DM world, the alignment and divine patron of the character, the wording of the wish, anything could happen. A good DM was able to make those events realy greats.
In fact, wishes and this kind of stuff is one of the reason why there is a DM in the first place.
Anyway, I think creating the "wish" spell will not be that hard in 4e... House rules for the win !