But the overwhelming majority of damaging cantrips don't work this way. You have some high damage cantrips that just deal damage (eldritch blast, firebolt, toll the dead), but the cantrips that deal less damage than the core cantrips usually have some other effect, like giving a creature disadvantage on attacks, moving slower, pulling them closer, forcing them to move away, and so on. Furthermore, they're cantrips. They're supposed to be repeatable spells that are essentially basic attacks for casters. Casters already get way more options to mess with the environment, and to a greater degree, than any of the other classes.
This is a great argument for giving non-casters more and more interesting abilities.
