There was no mistake. The sorcerer was deliberately added to 3.0 to justify the wizard getting so many spells in the PHB.
I think the main reason why 4e and to some extent 5e have managed to do more interesting things with the sorcerer is that they are not shackled by traditional Vancian casting. The 3e Sorcerer's main selling point was its spontaneous casting, but now that everyone has that in some way it needs something different.
With enough effort you can make an accidental marriage a happy one.
Right.
Which is poorly represented by spell slots and casting the same spells as the wizard. Being able to cast catapult, web, fireball, and mass suggestions are not "a very small number of things".
So make a class built around an at-will blast they can modify with spell points. Somewhere between a warlock and monk.
My only disagreement here is how many of them aren't sorcerers but warlocks with Jean being a GOOlock (and The Phoenix Force a GOO) and Cyclops being an Eldritch Blast spammer. Both of them with some At Will stuff that goes way beyond a cantrip and Pact Magic to go above and beyond their high baselines. Oh and Psylocke is a Soulknife.
Nha, sorcerer is a race, warlock is a background. Obviously. ;p
I do think they should lean more into the cantrips and metamagic side of things, and switch to spell points, when they get to the next major revision. But I think the Sorcerer currently has an interesting mechanical space as flexible in the moment while the Warlock is flexible at Character Building / Level Up.
