The early weakness of Spell Save spells are highlighted in BG3 vs 5e, because everyone and their grandma can get advantage on attack rolls, and spell saves don't get any bonuses from that.
In addition, because enemy HP is buffed as well, even hitting with it doesn't feel as solid as it should.
Yep. Especially since it has no bonuses to its minimal damage, like firebolt hitting 3 times.
I wouldn't mind if they added Toll of the dead, so that we'd at least have the possibility of doing decent damage, without burning a spellslot.