From a storytelling perspective there's a pre-existing association between wizards/witches and large...

From a storytelling perspective there's a pre-existing association between wizards/witches and large, pointy hats but what in-universe reason would spellcasters have to prefer them over more practical hats and hoods?

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So everyone knows you are a witch/wizard at first glance.

Gosh, user, this isn't hard.

Keeps the rain off your books?

Because Gandalf was based on the wandering Odin who wore a big hat.

I guess wizards use to travel when magic had no institutions so they wore big hats and cloaks for shade and protection against the weather while traveling (though a big hat might be at risk of blowing away) and now it's tradition, even though the wizards don't have much of a need to travel except to find rare magics.

Hat size corresponds to dick size. for witches too

style points

You made me imagine the dumbest thing.
A wizard riding some kind of "bicycle" which is surrounded by waist-high bookshelves with rotating wheels under them
He also wears a hat with a giant rim large enough to cover himself, his bike and the ring of mobile bookshelves attached to his bike

So people know what you are and to not fuck with you ever. Unless they have ambitions that involve a lifetime of hopping from one lilypad to another before eventually being eaten by a Frenchman.

Wide brimmed hats catch people's attention. This makes them focus on you. Since people are part of the universe, this makes the universe focus on you more. The more flashy your outfit the easier it is to grab reality's attention and negotiate with it in order to cast magic.

Many advanced magic users augment there intelligence and the power of there spells by literally making there brain bigger, the pointed hats were therefore the only kind of hat that would fit a truly mighty mage, apprentices wanted to look more intimidating so they copied the style and now thousands of years after the reason has been forgotten yet the fashion remains.