[PvK]

I think there's a wide spectrum of tastes in magic power levels, most of which are covered by the available options, and just about all of which can be covered by mods. Personally, though I love playing with mortal armies, my usual preference falls somewhere between "I'd just like the mortal units to remain a somewhat relevant factor into the late game" and "I'd like the magic to remain balanced by cost and level requirements throughout the game". I too love powerful magic effects - I just like them to have fairly balanced requirements (and not merely based on research). However, I don't mean to inflict those tastes upon the unmodded game.

I do think though that there are some things that are overpowered versus their costs, and that the game becomes more interesting if there are requirements to get to the most powerful effects, so that the less powerful effects still have their niches. I see most of the changes from Dom 2 to Dom 3 as those sort of changes, rather than an attempt to remove the powerful effects.

I can also see that many players love seeing lots of high-powered magic, and so don't like to get anything magic nerfed. Of course, mods can serve those players at least as easily as they can the players who prefer less powerful magic.