I can only speculate, but cantrips scaling up with levels was a pretty new thing with PF2e. In my own play, at all levels I see a lot of 'bread and butter' cantrips overshadow lots of the early and mid game spells.
'Why would I ever cast X when I can cast Y?'
They were maybe just too reliable and low cost.
oh you know I think I saw something like this. I just needed the kick to remember. Im not sure if it would effect player decisions though as the way they do dc's its always going to be smartest to upcast damage spells to the highest or second highest spell levels and use lower level ones for save type or utility spells like grease or longstrider.