steeldragons
Steeliest of the dragons
I'm with you, in that it strikes me as something that every wizard would/should know. I've played, predominantly, mage/witch/wizard/magus type characters (and druids and clerics, but spells. Always some kind of spells) and always, always, always, Detect Magic gets taken and usually prepared.When I started running my second 5E game with people who had played before, I was shocked to learn the party wizard did not take detect magic. Not sure why, but in my mind every wizard should get detect magic, to the point of considering just house ruling it that every wizard has it. It turned out the player's previous DM allowed people to detect magic with an arcana check (and he was annoyed that I didn't).
Back in the day, I think we played that everyone got Detect Magic instead of Read Magic. 'Cause Read Magic was just a stupid concept (to our prepubescent minds). You had to study your spells, of course you could "read magic"...and if you couldn't, then how did you learn the Read Magic spell in the first place!?
In my homebrew system/setting, I've made Detect Magic a cantrip. But that's still a "slot" for the day, even if it's something you do at will.
Making it something wizard-types just "get/know," though not something as menial as an arcana check, is definitely worth thinking about.