Oldest forms of DND had the right idea.

Now, they needed a lot of touching up, and not in the direction of the arms race DND became. However, characters being less insanely tricked out with random stuff but still capable of trucking on worked. Wizard had a single digit number of spells per ADVENTURE but wasn't shackled by his dick to vancian casting either. Which is really where the equation broke down, I think. Too much emphasis on vancian casting slots and not on OTHER resources.

I know people don't like it, but some basic competence outside vancian slots, and the DM being forced to give the party consumables for the magic users to use, goes a long way to stopping the party from resting for ten weeks after every short 5 minute jog. Once again, the thing gamers did not like is what made the game good at all.