Like everything else with Psionics, it widely varied. The 2e psionicist had to pick a primary discipline (one of the five options) and then picked sciences (major powers) and devotions (minor). They could pick other disciplines as they leveled, but never more than half their powers could be from...
I would say though that's never actually been the psion(cists) forte. Psionics has always been roughly on par with magic. 2e was probably closer to a cleric-level power, but 3e on was sorcerer/wizard levels. As such, they should have as least enough wallop as a full caster. Making silent...
Well, we kinda have an idea of what D&D magic is, except for all the times it's changed. Long ago, all arcane magic came from studying spell books, required specific material components, and each casting of a spell required a dedicated spell slot. The sorcerer fundamentally changed the nature of...
At the time, a really good 3pp company (I forget the name) had done a revised 3.5 psionics system for PF. So while there was fans who disliked Paizo opted to "make psionics magic", there was a well heeled alternative most fans were already using.
Exactly. Magic has so little counterplay in D&D as is, I don't want psionics to remove those few guardrails that are left. I'll take the temple-pressing, grimaced face and semi-visible energy waves over invisible and undetectable abilities.
I mean, magic itself is too varied to argue it's nuances about except to narrow it down to a source. The biggest complaint about D&D is that it doesn't match the magic of X fiction (Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Wheel of Time). No psionics system is going to match what X fiction does any better.
Google image search Professor X powers. There are as many ways to depict his telepathy as there are creators doing it. But he did something to show he was using his powers. For the audience as much as for the other characters in the fiction.
And whether Xavier was doing it for the audience's...