Then you wouldn't be playing dresden files, you would be playing something else. Magic is that powerful, as JB describes it " as the fundamental forces of creation". I've always thought that the game severly understates the power of a wizard in the dresden files. If you uread the majority of my posts I whine about this constantly. When I picked up my copy of dresden it was to play a wizard like dresden, not his brother the vampire or a plain jane mortal like murphy. Plenty of games out there that already "balance" magic against other things, i've never been one to think that magic should ever be balanced otherwise its not magic its something else.
You're absolutely entitled to want to play a Wizard character. I'm not arguing that at all. What I'm saying is that OUT-OF-CHARACTER, Wizards just dominate in a way that isn't fair to people who DON'T want to play a Wizard. I know plenty of players who find the idea of a Changeling compelling and interesting, and that's great. They should be able to play in a game with someone who wants to play a Wizard without feeling constantly overshadowed. The way that happens has nothing to do with which group is more powerful in the game world ON AVERAGE, because PCs are, by definition, not average instances of their template. They are almost always more clever, more powerful, or more resourceful than their average counterpart.
Thus, an example of a balanced group who can all get the right amount of attention without undoing power-levels: a Warden, the son of the White King, and a mortal cop with so many Fate Points that she can get a major creature of faerie to back down just by threatening him. The son of the White King is EXPECTED to be awfully powerful for the White Court vampire template-- he's PC-level in this case. The cop in question is just the most awesome cop ever written-- she's PC-level. They all get their moments in the series, and you could probably argue that they all have the same number of Refresh Points and Skill Points. This is how a balanced tabletop should run: out-of-character, everyone is balanced, while in-character, their average templates could vary significantly.
If magic is really that powerful, then it should cost more out-of-character points to choose it, so that other PCs can compensate accordingly. My argument is thus: I don't WANT to nerf magic. I just want to make it cost the right amount of points for how powerful it already is, so other PCs can use those points for other things, and play more awesome pinnacle-versions of their own template.
I hope that clarifies my position a bit more. It's a difficult topic to make clear sometimes.
You could have your players play sorcerers or some one trick pony like Bender. Make sure your games stay at the low end. But expect them to get trounced should they go up against a white council wizard or "gasp" a warden. In the magical community and beyond the WC is supposed to be that bad ass. You really aren't meant to be able to fight against a preped wizard and that prep incudes the use of magic items; that is part and parcel of the wizard template. Magic items are what allow the wizard to be ready for anything, they allow him to focus on offense and leave the defence to a sheild ring or a coat with defensive ruins.
I've actually experimented quite a bit with many of these ideas already in my games, but I don't enjoy telling my players things like 'you can't play a Wizard.' That, too, can feel unfair to players, especially when there are ways to help everyone have fun while still making character choices they enjoy.
TL;DR version: Out-of-character, one PC should be just as powerful as another PC, no matter what template they are playing. In-character, you can explain this away in whatever manner you must in order to make it work. Increasing the cost of Wizard abilities keeps them just as powerful in-character, but makes them more expensive out-of-character, thus resolving this situation perfectly.