I beg to differ: D&D is fairly precise in its description of magic and any modification is Dungeon Master house rule. This kind of magic is used in even higher fantasy settings, like The Inheritance Cycle (Eragon…Inheritance) or the Wizards (written by Mikael Peinkofer, it had a very small success in fact the third book isn’t translated nor sold outside its native Germany and I can’t find the second book even online).
Also I’m pretty sure I read this kind of depiction elsewhere but I can’t remember the sources. Not even The Dresden Files, which is VERY HIGH magic, uses this paradigm unless mitivated, Jim Butcher tends to be fairly scientific in its use of magic (he uses what in D&D would be Conjuration, even for its “Evocation” style, and it makes sense).
Also Low Magic scenarios tend to represent magic as either a huge arcane world-changing force in the hand of a handful of strange subjects or as small tricks that do not work as often as they do. In these scenarios strage things like blue fires or strange lightings are pretty standard, as magic is an “outside” force, a breach in the fabric of reality.