Scouting is something spellcaster would want most from familiar.
In P&P GMs should reward player for proceeding with situation smart way, not other way around. IN CRPGs it's hardly different.
You absolutely SHOULD try to scout around as much as you can.
As of attacks. It's actually need a buff, as familiars doesn't scale up with spellcaster at all, and very quickly become useless completely.
Even though 5e doesn't provide rules with familiar scaling, there are good examples how familiars should scale in Pathfinder 2e. Something that would be nice if Larian would implement similar mechanics in BG3.
