Do caster out of combat options matter?

[KorvinStarmast]

I'm not entirely sure why you and Samurai feel this is a zero-sum game where a Wizard can be either 100% utility or 100% combat with no in-between.

Your average Wizard would have a mix of both. They might prepare Fireball, Haste, and Summon Monster for their combat spells, and Knock, Spider Climb, and Speak With Dead as their utility spells.

My Lore bard had a mix of combat, healing, and utility. We didn't have a wizard; as the primary arcane caster she had to do a bit of a balancing act. I almost drove myself nuts with the choices for Magical Secrets (and I posted here asking for help in the 5e sub forum). My 'analysis paralysis' has cropped up again with the warlocks I play. (Own goal, but that's me...)

My "speak with dead" at will has been incredibly useful. (Eldritch Invocation).

The DM needs to make sure his players are able to participate in the story he wants to tell, the adventure he wants to run and the game he wants to play. Nothing more nothing less

"The story he wants to tell"
Hmm. The stories I want to tell is "what the players did during the game." Some of that will fit with pre gen encounters that I build, and some of it is stuff that the players come up with on their own. Plots aren't all that necessary, but world events that inexorably move forward on their own might be "a plot" though I tend to call it a 'situation' ... since I am not sure what the players will do.

These are the kinds of games I run and (largely) play. I don't write a story, I create a setting.

It's a good way to do things.