I hope that all went as well as possible my friend.
I’m doing better, but still waiting on some stuff.
I think that many things like Greater Restoration is there for gamest reasons and not as an aspect of considered world building. A lot of D&D spells are in there because they are legacy spells. They have been pretty much around for ever. I also believe that these spells are there more to facilitate game play than as an aspect of considered world building.
All that said, you are not wrong. I just believe that there is more than one right answer here. How many ninth level casters are out there?
So in the SRD based game I’m building, a lot of those spells go away or become less powerful, because they become part of a skill as we gut and replace the magic system. Medicine can actually cure disease and remove poison, Religion and Nature, too, respectively,
Also stuff like detect magic and identify, Counterspell and Dispel Magic, are functions of Arcana and Spellcraft (arcana was too big so I split it).
The magic skills are based on the celestial alignments, a sort of astrological theory that “governs” more than just magic, and has 4 Cardinal Courts, and 13 Celestial Houses, with 12 fitting into the courts and one outside of them.
I’m calling Arcana, Religion, Nature, and Spellcraft, the 4 Cardinal Magic Skills. Then, a separate category that I haven’t fully named but am considering disciplines, suits, courts, which are the specific magic skills like pyromancey and beguiling.
Each Cardinal skill is a gate to unlock a set of magic skills, and gain basic Spellcasting beyond rituals. So, a magic initiate would gain proficiency in 1 Cardinal Skill and 2 Disciplines/Suits/whatever, which comes with some cantrips and a couple spell slot, and the ability to learn spells in those categories.
There are still spells, but you don’t
need them. They represent standard principle workings that are refined to the point of always working as intended, and they are easier than improvising complex spell effects, encouraging PCs to train and develop their own spells and seek out other spells from other practitioners.