I'm fine with mages being a lower-range role that ignores armor. The offensive spells I've cast on players have hit like a damn truck. The supportive spells have felt VERY nice. Of course I was healing Zyloth who is actually good at melee, so I'm sure the slower damage my target was receiving helped, but it felt quite powerful.
You can't really kite and cast the same way you can run and take potshots with a bow even on Alvarin. This makes solo PVE quite hard and basically means if you grab aggro you just have to run. And yeah the really low carry capacity is mostly filled with regs it feels like.
I'm looking forward to tames to help screen for and protect me / carry some of my stuff. I'm looking forward to schools with insta-cast spells so I can kite better and weave in the big cast spells when I have nobody on me. I'm hoping there will be some balance passes on the spells. Some feel much weaker than others. And I'm REALLY looking forward to mana working properly as right now I'm capped at 100 and regen is super buggy and inconsistent.
The aiming feels like it needs a bit of refinement atm as well. Having a spell trail that lingers momentarily in the area the spell passed could possibly help with this even though the spells themselves are hitscan.
That being said. I totally disagree with the OP that magic is inherently underpowered and needs an overhaul. It just needs fine-tuning, more schools, and more supporting mechanics like tames.