So what you're telling me is that Wizards have convinced everyone including themselves that they are delving into the inner workings of the universe when in reality they are just gathering tricks, bobs and ends from old books?
That is fantastic.
You needed something else than D&D rules to tell you that? That is literally how magic-users are described as functioning.
"It's the fate of all things under the sky,
to grow old and wither and die."