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Think about it. Level 1. Going from 1d8+4 per strike to 2d8+4 for 1 minute is way better than shocking grasp once a day.
And if you do want to use spell strike, it stacks with cantrips.
Magic Weapon is certainly very strong at very low levels. You'll probably want to have an actual +1 weapon before you can get your hands on a +1 striking wespon, so you'll need to carry a nonmagical spare, in order to do this.
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You are 100% correct. I don't know why I didn't notice this before.
Is it a problem? I would argue yes. Until you get second level spells, at level 3 this is going to be THE spell. From a pure math standpoint it's pretty overwhelming. Even as a Wizard I almost always have it ready at these levels, and a Magus is going to have even more incentive. Even 2nd level spell slots are going to have trouble competing as long as you don't have a magic weapon. I don't think spell selection should be that "solved" at those levels.
How to fix it? There are some pretty heavy handed fixes that could be applied, like making Spellstrike incompatible with Magic Weapon at those levels only. I don't like that idea at all though, and would consider it probably worse than the problem of having one best spell choice for combat.
They could limit the Magus' top level spell selection, so every time you get a new level you can only pick and cast from a reduced list. That might have some benefit as a balancing knob, but it'll be pretty messy.
We could just accept it as their thing at the earliest levels. I don't know.
It is a strong option, but you also start the game with a focus power that gives you the accuracy boost, so it is just the extra damage, in exchange for lowering your nova potential. Again, at level 1 magic weapon is one of the most powerful spells in the game for any caster because full martial attacker with magic weapon (especially a 2 handed one) is incredibly powerful. Having a nova combat instead of a nova round is cool and powerful but probably not unbalanced. It seems unnecessary to try to make the striking spell and magic weapon incompatible though because it hardly feels game breakingly good. You are also stuck investing some kind of limited resource in a spell you will never use again by 5th level.
Gravity Weapon from Ranger Warden spells adds approximately 1d4 per existing damage die of the weapon. And that is one of the reasons that I think that Ranger MCD caster is one of the better choices for gish characters from the released rules.
Magus Potency only adds the +1 accuracy bonus until character level 6. At that point it adds the striking rune.
If it instead duplicated the effects of Magic Weapon at 1st level, that would be a fantastic 1st level focus spell for a Magus. Having other options like that would be fantastic.