In your eagerness to dismiss newcomer friendly Aid and Longstrider one-taps in favor of complex combat planning such as casting CC spells (which can go wrong a lot of different ways - counterspell, low save DC, CC resistance on the enemy, having the enemy ignore the surface, opportunity cost of just not bonking them on the head and so on) and terrain utilization... It just shines with overly complex hyper specific solutions that go beyond the party composition into the area of "how you should play this game".
I don't disagree with any of your advice, mind. CC can be a powerful tool if you account for some extra complex things, chokepoints can be used to generate advantage with any party composition, summons can take some fair share of agro and so on and so forth. Yet I think nothing beats exploring the combat for yourself, playing the game the way you see fit. To be able to do that, you just need some air to breathe, some passive boost to your mobility and survivability will suffice. Then you can avoid leaning into a particular playstyle - take some fights head on - for example, or play as 4 casters party. It is an entirely different kind of fun! Can we agree on that?
Btw, does the hireling thing still works? For some reason I thought they made it so when someone leaves your party - the buffs disappear. Haven't used it since patch 3 or 4.
