The entire mage kit/sub-class in BG/NWN/etc is based around spells (which ones you can and cannot use).
What a beautiful non sequitur.
"Dude, that makes no sense. You can change your spells later."
"WRONG. MAGE KITS EXIST!"
What?
Well, indeed they do. And let's say you pick Invoker, just to make sure your useless first level Magic Missile is as thematic as possible. A specialist isn't someone who is limited to his specialization. You sure as fuck wouldn't pick Infravision just because you are a Diviner. Besides, can you think of a more useful Invocation spell at first level? I can, its called Chromatic Orb. At least then your shitty damage may come with a round of blindness. Nothing compared to the actual Blindness spell but who cares? I am the Hero! The Hero is the one who does the damage XDDD.
Hey, if you want to move away from your crappy analogy, fine by me. Its just another subject to tackle.
We are talking about which spells one selects at char creation/level-up, not which ones a char chooses to memorize. Since you can only select a small number, you are admitting that you would select so called "useless" identify so you could cast it at inns, thus invalidating your own point.
Welcome to class. You see, Mages can learn spells outside of levelling up. All they need to do is procure a few scrolls. This is yet another difference between Mages and Sorcerers and yet another reason why your crappy analogy is still crappy.
But oh dear, you caught me. I have cast Identify at some point in my life. What I didn't do, however, is waste a first level spell pick on a scroll that routinely drops from Gibberlings (this is what actual metagame knowledge looks like, by the way).
Again you ignore the fact that Sleep is a gimped anti-trash spell, is described in its own description as such, and is utility-only.
If this were PnP or even NwN, that 'utility only' spell would cause every enemy to be susceptible to coup de grace. If this were Baldur's Gate, that would be more or less the case anyway. Surrounded by a kobold horde? Hopefully your shitty Magic Missile can kill one of them! Thanks Porky! Now the party doesn't have to do all the action! Oh my God, the arrows! They hurt! If only we could control this crowd, somehow!
Magic Missile on the other hand, is an actual damage dealing spell, which gets better with time.
An actual damage dealing spell that can be outdamaged by a Sling and that will eventually be worth memorizing. It isn't at level 1, though.
I would argue that most people who take pride in their character would take the latter waaay before the former.
Now this is rich.
Tell, me does your character wake up every day and says 'a week from now I'll be about level 4 so let's memorize Magic Missile right now'?
No, what the fuck would that even mean?
Here's a better thought process. 'My foster father Gorion is a great mage, he can easily invoke 5 Magic Missiles in an instant whereas I'd be hard pressed to fire a single one. Worse still we are about to travel cross country and that bolt might not even dispatch a single Gibberling, much less a horde! But you know what, I know another spell. Its called Sleep. Its not very powerful, but I'm sure that it can stop many of the beasts in the wilds. Hopefully one day I'll be as powerful as my foster father, but until then I won't act like a fucking moron and waste my free spell pick on fucking Identify.'
If I am starting the game without meta-knowledge
If you start the game without meta knowledge you might pick anything. You might pick Armor and Infravision. There are tons of even more useless spells than 1st level Magic Missile avaiable for you to peruse.
Now if you would sacrifice long-term stuff to have some temporary boon, then that's your flaw, not my problem.
You see, your analogy still sucks. A 1st level mage with Sleep and Blindness can easily out do many encounters with those same spells and still personally outdamage your shitty magic missile with a sling. And then that mage climbs up levels and uses a cheap ass scroll to learn Magic Missile.