is the playerbase beeing underestiamted? yes.
is vancian casting sitll dumb? also yes.
Vancian casting was fine up untill ADnD, but with 3.5 it started falling apart.
The focus went away from dungeons and onward to wilderness adventures and storytelling and the possibility of resting willy nilly and thats where the entire thing starts to not work.
Video games have all those problems inherently due to not having a DM that punishes you for resting all the time
