Do caster out of combat options matter?

[KorvinStarmast]

Sure, it is as valid as any other way to do things. But even your pre gen encounters have to be done in a way that your players can participate, or else why even bother to build then in the first place.

Most of my pregen encounters are someone in the world, usually a group, doing something for their own reasons. how the players engage with that varies.
Some of my pregen stuff doesn't get much interaction, but I can keep it for the future if I want to.

I don't think the game's own designers should be believed on this point, given the way their adventures are written. They may say that, but it's not apparent in their work.

Some of their adventure books are pretty good. I liked both ToA and Ghosts of Saltmarsh.

It would be hardly odd to think 5e D&D is a decent game but the published modules don't live up to its potential.

The quality varies. And as an aside, Curse of Strahd is one of those adventures that can live up to the game's potential, or, it can sour people on the game.
We have had three people now quite our CoS campaign. (I am a player in it).
Their complaint? They don't like the feel. (We had two others stop due to RL scheduling conflict).