Wow, you should calm down.
Anyway, your evaluation of casters is way off. Cantrip damage increases with level, so they can pump out consistent damage without burning spells. Spell slots allow for damage spikes, crowd control, and utility, all of which is very useful if you know what you are doing. There are cantrips to create illumination so dark vision isn’t that big a deal, and concentration isn’t nearly as prohibitive as you make it out to be.
A long-winded platitude. "Cantrips damage increases with level" Great, so Gale's fire cantrip does 11 damage by lv4, much wow, next to Lazael's 17-24 melee swing, or a rogue's sneak attack of 14+9 damage in DW. Won't even mention the frost cantrip hitting for 7-8 damage at lv4 and failing half its saving throws at its secondary debuff. Assuming you land a 75% hit chance spell at ground level.
"Spellslots allow for damage spikes, crowd control, and utility" really, water is wet, thanks for letting us know, so do superiority dice, and said battlemaster specialty moves or the rogue's sneak attack come with far more available and easily restored resources, on top of carrying far better hit rates to boot. But nice of you to keep out Charm's abysmal 50% success rate out of the conversation, or Sleep not working at all altogether during the Githyanki fight because all said enemies are above 24 HP individually, let alone combined, or maybe you're referring to Ray of Flame or Magic Missiles as a spell slot still getting outdamaged by a single melee swing with applied poison or fire dipping, again at worse accuracy rates.
"There are cantrips to create illumination" Yes, that cost concentration, meaning you will be gimped out of Hex, Witchbolt, or any difficult terrain utility, so to not be gimped in dark instances, non-elf spellcasters have to effectively gimp their damage, CC, and utility to be on ground with elf casters. And casting said cantrip already put you one spell behind a darkvision race in terms of output.
"Concentration isn't nearly as prohibitive as you make it out to be" now this isn't just flimsy, it's outright unserious. There is nothing remotely nuanced about a mechanic that says "you can cast this spell, or you can cast this one, using limited resources, but you can't use both, and hope your spell slot isn't wasted by the stray arrow hitting you". Which, by the way, attacks can miss and still break concentration, which is hysterical.
