It is an oddity in 5e that cantrips grow in power whereas leveled spells don't. That said, before 11th level your 1st & 2nd level slots should still be more damaging than cantrips.
Its not an oddity, because... they do, its called upcasting, using a higher level spell slot makes most damaging spells do more damage
I mean, previous editions had auto scaling leveled spells that didn't require using higher level slots. WotC made the explicit design choice to both power up cantrips and make them scale with character level, while *removing* scaling from leveled spells. This has the effect of making damaging 1st level spells ~useless at higher levels - relegating 1st level slots to mainly be used for Mage Armor and Shield.
If cantrips get more powerful because the wizard is getting better at their craft, more in tune with the weave, why doesn't this similarly buff all their spells? E.g., add level 5 you add one die to all spells you cast - cantrips and leveled?
