Oooh. Ok, this is a big bugaboo for me. *ahem*
Just because the PCs are the star of the show does not mean that the entire freaking world needs to be built around small unit combat. What do I mean?
Take for example, Winged Boots. These nifty bits of enchanted crap let one fly at a speed of 60' with good manuverabilty. Sweet! Oh wait. For 5 minutes at a time. 3 times per day. For 16,000 gp. They are, in other words, completely useless for anyone except an adventurer. For 2/3rds of what they cost you can buy, provision and crew a Caravel.
If you want to be able to actually fly somewhere you can't walk in 1/2 an hour you need a broom or carpet of flying, for 17k and 20k respectively. Although neither will carry (for example) my current character (A Skarn Crusader) who weighs 318 in briefs and a little over 400lbs fully kitted out. For him I would need the big carpet at 60,000 gp. Or the cost of two warships and a longship. Hmmm... Flying rug, or pocket Armada?
It's not just that the economics are stupid, it's the idea that anyone would spend their time enchanting the bloody boots in the first place.
And this goes doublely tripley times ten squared and cubed for the wizards spell lists. These are some of the most intelligent people in their worlds, spending years and vast fortunes to learn... better ways to blow stuff up. Whoop-de-freaking-do. I want to spend a dozen years learnig how to cast a spell almost as effective an a stone thrown from a siege weapon. A siege weapon that 10 peasants with a saw can make.... and use all day... even though my spell only works once.... Well that was 1/5th of my life well spent.
If I'm a wizard I don't need yet another way to cast magic missile, especially when Joe Yeoman with a longbow can out perform me all day long. I want to conjure beautiful girls (For more than 30 seconds at a time thank you very much), and sniffters of brandy. I want to snap my fingers and produce a house from nothing in the middle of a howling wilderness, complete with a hot bath. I want to turn that annoying townsie into a frog. I want to soar with the birds and explore the depths of the ocean. Magic should let me bypass perils that confound lesser men. That's what it's for! If the GM can't cope with my not having to fight the Orcs of Ye Old Forest yet again, then perhaps he's not up to GMing High Fantasy, Hmmm?
In other words: Spell lists should, indeed must, contain useful spells of utility, and wonder and enchantment. Or it's not magic, it's a grenade with sparkles glued to it.