Oh, I totally get that. At some point I came across SCOWL, which was usefully separated into tiers based on how common the words were, but I don't know what its current status is. You can also take a look at https://www.spreadthewordlist.com/, which is designed to be an open-source list; it's crossword-oriented, so there may be phrases in there, but it might still be a useful starting point (I think it's also a scored list, but I'm not sure).