No, it's exactly the opposite for some spells that are created by wotc in a way that is deliberately overpowered for their level, conveniently sorcerer's share them with wizard or people trumpeting the mere presence of wizard specific spells would have immediately rattled them off on one of the many times they were asked to list top shelf wizard only spells...
You seem to be presenting biased opinion as fact here. This is what the PHB states on spell levels:
Every spell has a level from 0 to 9. A spell’s level is a general indicator of how powerful it is, with the lowly (but still impressive) magic missile at 1st level and the earth-shaking wish at 9th. Cantrips—simple but powerful spells that characters can cast almost by rote— are level 0.
The differences are in which pillars, how often used, and how situational a spell might be. Spells are definitely power ranked by estimated spell level.
You would need to back up the intent of the developers that you are claiming with some citation of some sort.
You also seem to be arguing from the presumption that sorcerers are actually getting to take all the spells the character wants to take. What you are actually doing is claiming a arbitrary number that suits your argument and not backing that number up. IME, playing a wizard or sorcerer forces making a choice in spells known vs prepped (and scribed) where both classes still want good spells they cannot afford to take. The difference is the sorcerer is impacted more in those choices because of the gap in known vs prepped (or learned).
If the sorcerer is not losing out on these spells with their smaller spell list & the wizard is not gaining any meaningful options, do they counterbalance the class specific tools granted to sorcerer given that using those tools would often result in them being mechanically disadvantaged by choosing to play in a way wotc tried to idiscourage? Simply saying that more spells exist does not answer the question or complete an argument that they counterbalance the class specific stuff that does grant significant mechanical benefits in play
Simply generating a buzz word phrase like "top shelf" does demonstrate any argument without context behind or application of the mechanics involved. A spell does not actually have to be "top shelf" to be useful. I use
glyph of warding all the time even if it's not "top shelf", for example. That option isn't even available to me on a sorcerer and even if it were I would not have room to add it.
Thaat's quite the stretch, and an absurd one at that. Ritual spells are unfinished...
Again, citation needed. There's no evidence ritual spells are unfinished as opposed to deliberately limited.
There are, however, rituals commonly taken regardless of whether a person chooses to believe the list is incomplete or not.
Find familiar and
Leomund's tiny hut are considered excellent.
Alarm, detect magic, comprehend languages, identify, and
unseen servant are all pretty common. I like using
magic mouth and
Dramij's instant summons although that last one is rather expensive so no so common. A lot of people like
water breathing.
Can I live without rituals? Sure. But it's disingenuous to claim they do not have value or are not an advantage. They all have their uses.
They also pretty much stop at third, there are zero ritual spells of levels 4,7,8, & 9 with the remaining 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, & 6th level rituals being too niche & scattered to build much of a concept around other than "like a sorcerer but occasionally casts detect magic & tiny hut". Nobody is remarking about how the wizard's earlier cast/residual force multiplying rituals really saved Alice's bacon or that it's great how they let Bob wtfpn the bbeg so good or anything.
Sorcerers have zero rituals from spell levels 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9 so showing some dead ritual levels for a wizard does not prove a lack of value. It's also presumptuous to assume there needs to be rituals for every level.
The argument you just gave misapplies the value of rituals by making a claim about combat when the value comes out of combat. On that note,
Dramij's instant summons could save Alice by way of the second application of the ritual. It's more reliable than scrying.
Drawmij's instant summons can also be used to summon an item to help in the fight against the BBEG. It takes an action to do the summon. The ritual part is in preparing the summon and the gem. If it did not cost so much or if the spell caster had the resources to ignore the cost it's a pretty good ritual.
