Thunderwave vs. Burning Hands, what's better and what is cooler (fits DnD more)

 So I have a thing against Thunderwave (or any Thunder spell) b/c it's basically... what(?) Sonic or explosive Concussive force? It just doesn't sound like a cool magical spell to me for some reason... can't say why... maybe b/c the name is misleading, or it "sounds" weak, I dunno, not enough flash and coolness to be a dmg spell to me. And then it turns out to be better than burning hands, it just kind irks me. Upcasting it just so happened to nuke the kid the other night, with the 6 evil druids, so let's take a look:

Level 2 (upcast) Burning Hands goes from 3d6 to 4d6 

And 4d6 is

(14) 4 to 24

Level 2 (upcast) Thunderwave goes from 2d8 to 3d8, but also pushes back 10 ft

3d8 is

(13.5) 3 to 24

So upcast Thunderwave 0.5 less dmg on avg (AKA same dmg), but it has that pushback AND practically nothing resists this new weird made up THUNDER dmg.

AND it has a huge 3x3 grid it hits, much bigger than the Cone. Maybe the argument is the cone is easier to miss your friends and only hit baddies, but I dunno, I think I'd rather have the 3x3 grid. 

Still, I like the coolness factor of Burning Hands much more. Makes me want to homebrew fix it so it's as good as the other... it'd have to do more dmg basically, like an additional d6 at level 1 if you ask me  to compare.