Duncan Haldane
Explorer
I wanted to highlight this fallacy...
In BECMI: a 1st level magic-user had 2 1st level spells, chosen by the DM.
In 1e: a 1st level magic-user had between 4-9 1st level spells, depending on his Int score.
In 2e: a 1st level mage had 3d4 (3-12) 1st level spells. Specialists gained 1 additional in their specialty.
In 3e: a 1st level wizard had 3+int mod (4-7) plus all cantrips (19). A 1st level sorcerer had 4 0-level and 2 1st level.
In 4e: A 1st level wizard has 2 at-will, 1 encounter, and 2 dailies (choose 1 per day) as well as 3 rituals. (if he has expanded spel book, it increases by 1 daily, if he's human he has one more at-will).
So assuming each was a non-specialist and had an 18 in their caster score...
BECMI: 2
1e: 9
2e: 12 (max roll)
3e Wiz: 26!
3e Sor: 6
4e: 8
Clearly, the 19 cantrips for the 3e wizard creates the biggest boost. Remove them, and you find the wizard is only at a modest 7, much more in line.
And yet you have overlooked a major part - in previous editions wizards could expand their spellbooks, and choose on a day which spells they wanted to memorize. Now there's no such choice.
To answer the OP, so far in my experience with 4th Ed, I see mostly what the first group is seeing - too much "more of the same" for my liking. See, IMO, the different classes don't all need to be equal. I don't play my games to have a competition to see who can be in the limelight, therefore I don't need WotC telling me that everyone must get exactly the same sized piece of cake and the same amount of candy for it to be fair, even if someone want less cake and more candy.
Duncan