Do caster out of combat options matter?

[KorvinStarmast]

This may sound controversial but hear me out.

Casters can do a lot out of combat. They can teleport past obstacles, plane shift, open locked doors, fly etc.

But do these options actually matter?

The party druid (me = GM) has chosen to cast regenerate on two hostages who were just rescued. One was missing an eye, one missing half of an arm. This costs the party a day during which the bad guys are going to be doing some things. But the party has chosen to heal their allies/friends now. That matters. It was their choice.

If the party needs to get to the Plane of Fire, they're going to have to pay to do so.

This. What will you (the party) trade (be it goods or services) in order to get access to that rare ability/tool? Costs and opportunity costs need to be folded in.
As an aside; Magic Items handle some of this. When you get a legendary item at level 11, cubic gate, as we did in one campaign it made planar travel to five of the planes a lot less difficult.
But that was a bonus item that came from defeating a lich: the DM rolled up "what was in the chest?" after the battle and ended up generating a cubic gate. Some of the other magic items she had used against us we also collected.

Sometimes the payment is character building (investment of personal resources - being a wizard who learned Plane Shift/Gate or the like), sometimes it's paying someone else to get them there (investment of 'group' resources - gold, magic items, etc. that now can't be spent elsewhere), and sometimes it's payment is in time (questing to find a portal).

Yes. Tradeoffs.

Another example of out of combat stuff that matters:
I am a player in this one.

My warlock had, for most of her levels from 7 to 11, the at will casting of disguise self. She used it a LOT for out of combat stuff and opened a bunch of opportunities for intel collection (her deception ability is pretty good, proficient) and misdirection to allow the party to get to some places with nobody being the wiser.

She still has at will Speak With Dead. This has provided some intel collection that allows the party to make informed decisions. It is not an easy button, as our DM does the "cryptic answer" thing, but it's helpful.

Mass Suggestion: our bard broke up the beginning of a riot with that a few sessions back. This got us access to some people in the city council and set up a meeting with the vizier - which we needed.

Out of combat: Rary's Telepathic Bond. Let us split up the party as we hunted down a troublesome mage and then captured him. We were able basically form a dragnet and track them down, mentally communicating the whole time.