So when you say "grouping" I'm going to assume you mean the traditional six-man experience group. Not a duo or a trio, or even a four man group, an XP group that seeks to fill to six players and grind straight xp as the goal.
For a full XP group the goal is always chain pulling. You always want a mob dying in camp non stop as much as possible. This was true in the year 2000 and its still true today.
The reason wizards have long been called the worst group class is because they are the most inefficient class for accomplishing the chain killing goal. A pure dps class that has built in downtime based around burst damage just loses out to any class who can sustain dps without downtime from one mob to the next.
As far as utility there is literally nothing a wizard can do that another class can't do as well or better, and many times can fill the role with a wider range of utility tools than a wizard. Druid is a close second worst group class due to being so wildly inefficient compared to clerics and shamans. But overall a druid can offer everything a wizard can plus significant extra utility potential, especially in outdoor xp zones and yes there are lots of popular outdoor flagged group xp spots at any given time.
Another thing that was as true in 2000 as it is today is that there's never any shortage of people who want to stand up and defend the wizard as a grouping class. But no matter the rationalizations, the wizard by design can never really carry its weight effectively in a chain pulling full XP group. This doesn't mean they can't contribute anything to a group theoretically or that no one should ever invite them. But they are the worst class for a six man XP group and its not close.
DSM is right, its an asymmetrical game, not all classes were created equal. The other thread was more interesting for the most part because the answer to this question is long past settled, expect for the white knight grouping wizard apologists.
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