Why Do Many DMs Overlook This Restriction for Spellcasters?

[Spatula]

But if you do that it takes away an "advantage" of the psions.

No, it doesn't because the wizard and other spellcasters still needs the material components to cast spells - and the psion does not. The only thing being discussed here is whether the tracking of those components that have no listed cost is necessary. The core books (the same core books the psion was designed to balance against) recommend that you do not bother with it. Many people here, including myself, agree.

 

[I'm A Banana]

By the book, wizards are very powerful,

*blink*

No more powerful than any other class, m'fraid.

I don't think wizards get enough skill points. I'm hoping 3.5E will fix that, but if they don't, I think my next revision of my homebrew will see some modifications to the wizard class as well.

See, I think your view of the Wizzo is a bit off-base from the default assumption. A wizard isn't Captain of the Skill Team. That dubious honor belongs to the likes of Rogues, Bards, and (especially) Experts. Wizards in D&D aren't nessecarily learned sages of many facets of life. They're austere whackdoddles that enjoy eating live spiders and hanging upside down from the cieling. They tend to be more of the learned type (A wizard with a starting Int of 16 has already doubled their skill points, and made their magic -- I find it hard to envision a wizard WITHOUT a high Int, personally....and that makes the 2 sp/level merely a bit extra), but they don't have to be Ubersages of History and Lore. That job's for the Experts. Wizards just know what they need to know to do what they do -- cast spells to blow things up.

You want your Wizards to be neutered in power and enhanced with lore? Make them take a level of Expert every other level, or every three levels, or whatever. Limits their spellcasting, and makes them more learned at the same time. But don't try to force your typical adventuring wizard to bake cookies. That's just not...fun. (for me, anyway).

Remember: the Wizard class wasn't nessecarily built to house the learned sage archetype (though it does lean in that direction). You don't need to be a learned sage to cast spells in D&D...you just need to be able to stand the smell of bat guano, know how to wave your arms around and chant a bit, and then BAM, you're a wizard.

Wizards ain't nothin' special, by default. There's a lot of good that can be said about campaigns that alter that a bit, but I prefer it this way. If Wizards were learned sages of some sort, I'd make them a PrC or something...because a 1st level character ain't no type of learned anything, boyo.

Anyhoo, enough babbling. I basically don't think that keeping track of each material component is adding much to the game -- but I would award some bonus XP for those who wanted to describe it a bit more.