Example:  Eagles Splendor gives advantage on cha checks but so does the help action so whats the point of that aspect of the spell

1. First of all, not everything the spell does has to be helpful per se - for example, it grants advantage on Constitution checks, and by and large, those do not exist.  I've literally never made one. 
2. Secondly, you need an ally on tap to Help you, and you may not have one, especially for Charisma checks, where you may be called upon to parley in a one-on-one.
3. Thirdly, there are a wide variety of ability checks most DMs will rule you can't be functionally helped on.  To give several charisma examples:
   1. Dispel Magic for a sorcerer, bard, warlock, or paladin.
   2. Counterspell for a sorcerer, bard, warlock, or paladin.
   3. Every Performance check I can think of.

Also, I don't know about other DMs, but I like to do charisma checks as group checks in situations where people are "helping" instead of just giving advantage.

Eagle's Splendor allows you to Help yourself to anything you want.  Usually when people do that, it gets frowned upon.

Quote from Geann >>

Usually when people do that, it gets frowned upon.

Why?  

So things that I like using Enhance Ability for:

Give it to the thief during dungeon runs where speed is required, since passive investigation(check traps) is 10 + Skill Modifier(Int + Prof + Expertise) + 5(for have the permanent advantage).  Means that their passive score is probably 22+.  At low levels, this is will find most traps and since you went out of your way to spend a resource as a group, this shouldn't be frowned upon.  

Know you're going into a really big social situation and you CANT fail the rolls?  Charisma checks.  Same thing with potential bartering.  

Know that your fighter is about ready to get into a grapple contest?  Let's give advantage on all those strength checks for athletics.  

If its constantly being used to only amplify yourself, I could see why some players would frown on it since a hour worth of advantage isn't anything to be mad at, but same token it's not like you went out of your way to do something game breaking.  Final note, the Help Action is ONLY available in combat, RAW.  Out of combat, in order to give assistance and grant advantage, a DM has to be willing to do it.  Enhance Ability circumvents that, as its magical.

Quote from Spideycloned >>

Quote from Geann >>

Usually when people do that, it gets frowned upon.

Why?

 Think it was a joke. "Helping yourself to anything you want" as in what a rude guest might do.

Help is an action, for one thing. With a very short range. Also a lot of DMs (myself included) require you to be proficient in a skill to help with it.

Here's an example. My whole party wanted to fly somewhere, plus a bunch of NPCs. We had various means of flight: wild shape, polymorph, and one PC who just has wings (homebrew race). The rest had to be carried. Not all of us fliers are super strong fliers, so there was going to be a strength check for carrying passengers. Obviously there's going to be no help since we're all doing the check at the same time. Bull's Strength was welcome.

Also, as a DM, I require players to explain a plausible way they could help with a check. You can't just push the Help button like it's a video game. If you want to help with a Persuasion check, for example, you have to role play something persuasive you say. (If you don't feel like speaking in character, you can just state a new point in favor of your party's side of the argument.)

Deception, Sleight of Hand, and Stealth are hard to help with, as they're more to do with not screwing up, and an additional person is jusr another chance to make a mistake. Although if you want to make a distraction, that mighr work in some circumstances.

I think spell has been really weakened since third edition. I challenged my players to come up with a weaker second level spell and they didn't come up with much else, especially since it uses concentration.

The one use somebody had was in a Tomb of Annihilation game where they gave Cat's Grace to the rogue for one of the levels and told him to go undo all the traps!

I second the "make help harder to do" idea. But is a sorcerer ever going to take this spell?

Yes, I was joking.  As near as I can figure, the Eagle's Splendor gives you advantage on Persuasion checks, and that's the same thing someone else does when they use the Help action, so I just found humor in pointing that out.  You can ask, and get advantage on getting the answer you want, without anyone else using the Help action.  You can do the same with a point of Inspiration, so you don't need the spell.  Also, if there is a Bard handy, they can use Bardic Inspiration to assist you.

Sad.  Bards cannot assist themselves with Bardic Inspiration, they can generally only do it for other people.

Quote from ThirstyBard >>

 

I second the "make help harder to do" idea. But is a sorcerer ever going to take this spell?

That's a bit unfair. There are plenty of good spells a sorcerer probably won't even look at, simply because their spell selection is very limited.

Personally I'd take Enhance Ability well before I'd take Crown of Madness, Darkvision or Gust of Wind too. 

Enhance Ability gives you a persistent benefit of the help action even when the help action wouldn't normally be possible. To benefit for the help action to the same degree as Enhance Ability you would need:

• Someone following you along to help you for the entire duration
• Only perform actions that can be helped
• Only perform actions that the other person is capable of helping you with

For example, it's generally not possible to help someone with a dexterity (stealth) check, especially if you're making the check yourself. Enhance Ability however gives you that advantage.

As for advantage on constitution checks, that's useful if the DM runs the optional rule that lets you use skills with different abilities (something I do). For example, a PC running in a race might be required to make several constitution (athletics) checks to maintain their stamina.

Quote from ThirstyBard >>

I think spell has been really weakened since third edition. I challenged my players to come up with a weaker second level spell and they didn't come up with much else, especially since it uses concentration.

The one use somebody had was in a Tomb of Annihilation game where they gave Cat's Grace to the rogue for one of the levels and told him to go undo all the traps!

I second the "make help harder to do" idea. But is a sorcerer ever going to take this spell?

Coming up with a weaker second level spell is very easy, although it helps to know what caster you're discussing - for example, Gust of Wind is a worse spell, but the dichotomy is at its most extreme for an Arcane Trickster; one of the reasons Enhance Ability is better than Gust of Wind is how situational the latter spell is, and a spell being situational hurts it much more on a know-caster than a prep-caster.  Any spell involving a save DC is a bigger ask for a Ranger, Paladin, Arcane Trickster, Eldritch Knight, or Monk pseudocaster (Shadow, Four Elements, etc) than for full casters - Enhance Ability ignores your SAM, which is important for casters that are focusing on an ability score that isn't their SAM.

Gust of Wind is great Crowd Control (CC) spell, especially in any place that isn't a wide open area. For 60 feet it creates difficult terrain for enemies coming towards you and has the ability of knocking them 15 feet back (which because of the difficult terrain uses 30 feet of their movement. Gust of Wind also does not use up concentration like Enhance Ability. 

Gust of Wind is much more flexible because it can be used in combat, does not eat up concentration allowing you to do other spells, does not require a save DC to be useful (though if they fail it becomes even better), and can be used in creative ways out of combat (are the cultists about to sacrifice a human on that pyre of fire? Are the bandits using fire for light? Do I need to convince that noble there's a tornado coming so he'll stay home and make it easier to protect him the assassins you've been hired to protect him from?)

TLDR: Gust of Wind is an amazing CC spell with a ton of uses in and out of combat. Enhance Ability gives you advantage on specific non-combat skill checks and uses up your Concentration. 

Quote from ThirstyBard>>

Gust of Wind is great Crowd Control (CC) spell, especially in any place that isn't a wide open area. For 60 feet it creates difficult terrain for enemies coming towards you and has the ability of knocking them 15 feet back (which because of the difficult terrain uses 30 feet of their movement. Gust of Wind also does not use up concentration like Enhance Ability. 

1. You are simply incorrect - Gust of Wind is a concentration spell.
2. The "difficult terrain" costs a maximum of 10 feet movement, since any creature can step out of the wind and then approach the caster normally. It will never consume 30 feet movement even with knockback - that would be at most 25.
3. As I addressed in my post, needing to overcome a save makes a spell worse.

Gust of Wind is much more flexible

Less flexible.  Less.

because it can be used in combat,

As can Enhance Ability.

does not eat up concentration allowing you to do other spells,

Yes it does.

does not require a save DC to be useful (though if they fail it becomes even better),

It has some utility regardless of save, yes.

and can be used in creative ways out of combat (are the cultists about to sacrifice a human on that pyre of fire? Are the bandits using fire for light? Do I need to convince that noble there's a tornado coming so he'll stay home and make it easier to protect him the assassins you've been hired to protect him from?)

I already addressed situationality.  Enhance Ability is a better way to persuade a nobleman of something than Gust of Wind.

TLDR: Gust of Wind is an amazing CC spell with a ton of uses in and out of combat. Enhance Ability gives you advantage on specific non-combat skill checks and uses up your Concentration. 

 That's not even remotely true.  Enhance Ability gives you advantage on non-specific ability checks, including combat checks, including initiative checks.  Gust of Wind is a relatively garbage CC spell with very limited uses in and out of combat that takes up your Concentration slot.  Any Arcane Trickster who chooses Gust of Wind over Enhance Ability has made a poor choice that will lead to worse outcomes for them.

Ah so I messed up the concentration.

I explained how gust of Wind is more flexible (in and out of combat, can be used in RP). I even gave specific examples that come up in game play.

Can you speak into more detail about how Enhance Ability is more flexible in play?

Actual mechanics of Gust of Wind aside, the simple fact that it’s a crowd control spell is a disadvantage. There are a whole lot of crowd control spells a sorcerer can take, but given their limited spell selection they probably don’t want more than 2-3 even if the function is somewhat central to the build. For Enhance Ability there are no real alternatives - Invisibility is better than advantage on Dex checks for Stealth, sure, and there are dozens of other situations where a specific spell is better than Enhance Ability, but a sorcerer can’t learn all those spells. Advantage on ability checks can be a game changer, particularly for a sorcerer who can choose to learn the Subtle Spell metamagic, and Enhance Ability lets you provide it for any and all ability checks you can foresee.

Enhance ability is useful any time somebody needs to make a check that their allies can't, for whatever reason, aid them with. This will likely come up much more often outside of combat than otherwise, but many fights can be happening as a result of one side trying to do something that the other side is trying to stop them from accomplishing. Advantage on dex checks could help you catch something being thrown to you, and strength for pushing, pulling, and otherwise moving things around. And for out of combat, almost any but the most strictly RAW, number crunching, munchkin friendly DM running a game based entirely on rollplaying to the exclusion of roleplaying is going to ask a player to explain how they aid another character. It might require proficiency in the same skill, like two characters with proficiency in perception acting as lookouts together and the one with a higher modifier making the roll with advantage, or one adding an extra point for a persuasion check, or making a distraction for a stealth or sleight of hand, etc. but you're going to have to have some explanation of how you're helping. And it's going to be pretty hard convincing the DM you're helping your buddy lift a heavy macguffin off of an altar while you're holding the mechanism that would spring a trap while he does it, or keeping a lookout for guards, or you're a wizard with a strength score of 6.

Gust of Wind is decent in very specific situations. I think ThirstyBard had in mind a corridor-like situation, where the enemy can't simply move out of the path of the wind. But it's a very specific situation where you want to hold enemies at bay in a combat and have a convenient corridor. As quindraco said, it is a hard sell for a know-caster to take it as one of their half-dozen or so spells they know at level 3.

A bit off topic, anyway. I don't think we need to prove Enhance Ability is the worst or best level 2 spell. It has some uses, and people can choose the spells they want.