First, I agree you should only ED somewhere if it is your clear favorite, it actually has ED, you know can comfortably afford it, and you know you would not want to consider an offer from any of your other colleges if you got an offer from your ED college. Common reasons to not ED anywhere including having a favorite college that doesn’t have ED, not being sure yet what college will be your favorite (including wanting to do post-offer visits), chasing discretionary merit, and so on.
With that framework in mind, I would not ED Columbia if I was not enthusiastic about the core curriculum approach. That makes no sense to me.
I am less concerned about your “cons” for Penn. As others are saying, Penn CAS is not Wharton. And if you are an Arts and Sciences sort of person, to me that is a good thing, not a bad thing. I think in the Arts and Sciences world, Penn CAS is in fact very well-regarded, and I personally would prefer their curriculum structure to Columbia’s.
But as others are also saying, Penn is not the only great place to go for Arts and Sciences without a core curriculum. If you wanted an even more open curriculum, why not a Brown or Amherst? Over if you love Philly but want even more of a consistently academicky vibe, why not Haverford? And so on. There are plenty of colleges that will be just as good for your academic and professional goals—and for the record, part of the point of these sorts of colleges is you can explore your options before deciding, so you may find your plans change, and that is OK.
But if you consider all those other options and do end up deciding Penn is your clear favorite, then great! If you get admitted ED, it means you will end the process right there, and be able to enjoy the rest of your senior year. If not, well, you now know your other great options and can carry on from there (including possibly EDII somewhere, if that makes sense for you).