There is some character to every edition of D&D. Even the various permutations of Basic and Original, even AD&D2E with it's tacked on half-sincere play to BADD. Hell, even 4E is a flavor all it's own, even if that flavor is sawdust. 5E is not. 5E is a reimagining of 3E to work more like B/X. They even try to limit the scope so that the game tops out at about power level 12 (at 20th level 5E, of course).
5E is schizophrenic. It wants to be B/X on paper and 3E in practice. But those who want B/X will play B/X and those who want 3E will play 3E (and those who really want to play 3E will not bother with Pathfinder). New players won't know this but over time the game gets more and more hollow as these divergent styles fight with one another. I liken it to Pepsi because it's nobody's favorite drink but sure if that's what the restaurant's serving whatever. who cares.
Whatever, who cares doesn't work forever, it doesn't foster extended enjoyment. It's fine for a time but hopefully something better comes next time. That doesn't come with 5E. Per my other rant, eventually this game is going to become 3E. There's no way to remove complication, only increase it. This weakness was built into 5E at inception, and it was never going to work, I can see that now.
"No, Pepsi isn't good enough."
EDIT: The weirdest part of 5E is somebody already built a game that does exactly what it sets out to do - Castles & Crusades. Hell there's two: Basic Fantasy. Both suffer for a lack of vision. They're boring, which is a cardinal sin in the OSR even if C&C is grandpa and deserves respect for that.
