MoonSong
Rules-lawyering drama queen but not a munchkin
No, this is not the difference between sorcerer and wizard. "Sorcerer" does not equal "blaster." Being a sorcerer in 3E just means you're sacrificing strategic flexibility for tactical. Instead of arming yourself with exactly the right spell for a given situation, you have to pick a set of versatile spells suitable for lots of situations; but when you find yourself facing an unexpected challenge, you have the freedom to choose at will from that more limited set, instead of being stuck with whatever loadout you picked at the start of the day.
Yes, exactly. 4e commited the mistake of shoehorning of sorcerers into the blaster role, however that isn't necessarilly the case, in fact this tactical versatility made 3.x sorcerers very adept at being self buffing gishes thier ability to spam quickened truestrikes, blades of fire, insigtful feints, master's touch and the lot made them very good at it. And I bet I'm not the only one who made sorcerers specialized to fill a party role other than "caster", for example, ranged combat, infiltrator, thief, melee warrior (skirmisher), party face and the like.
However their differences with wizards were also thematical (more of "commoner with spells" than "arcane scholars", though there were obviously some scholarly sorcerers out there too). I don't know how they are going to leave room for the sorcerer now that wizards have also gained tactical flexibility though.