@Skrum: I think it's both; the journey and the destination.

And I think there's merit in both journeys that make use of magic and those that don't.

And honestly I think that a lot of this just has to do with expectations. Like all the things you listed can be done without magic, but I suspect a lot of games/players/DMs don't have the patience for that, so magic as a quicker version of mundane tasks becomes the standard for doing mundane things.

Old school D&D had a lot of out of combat stuff, without nearly as many out-of-combat-buttons to press (as I understand it, casters were much more restricted back then).

Same with this notion that the DM's world has to be organic, completely divorced from player character choices. Meanwhile, back in the day a module straight up told you "it would be very helpful if you had an elf and a cleric in the party; don't try this adventure if you don't have a cleric of x level".

All to say that... this seems like a matter of taste or preference. I don't particularly care if a DM puts something in the game or not specifically because of party composition. I can't imagine playing at a game once a week for months on end only to find out we never stood a chance because no one in the party chose to play a Super Mage-Master Caster from the very beginning. It would feel like a bad joke that only the DM was in on.