I'm pretty liberal and a social justice focused individual....
But I've joked that the reason past edition were created was:
0e: Previous edition was not extant enough.
1e: Previous edition was not complete enough.
2e: Previous edition was not organized enough.
3e: Previous edition was not consistent enough.
3.5e: Previous edition was not profitable enough.
4e: Previous edition was not balanced enough.
5e: Previous edition was not popular enough.
5.5e: Previous edition was not woke enough.
A lot of the changes really seemed as focused on making the game more "inoffensive" and removing anything that could be remotely upsetting. I half expect alignment will go away and things like demons and devils being re-named. Again.
Some of the changes I do agree with. Most really. But I still lament what is happening to races and how samey they're becoming.
To me, it really feels like WotC is trying to have their cake and eat it too with this edition change. They're trying desperately to emphasise it's still 5th Edition while making more changes than between 1st and 2nd Edition. Or even more changes than between 3e and 3.5e. To say nothing of most other roleplaying games, where edition changes are largely an errata and reprinting. They're really pushing the idea that things are compatible and you can use old options. But that just seems like marketing spin.
They don't want people to stop buying books for the next 18 months. Or worry that their current library of accessories and adventures is now unusable.
I love 5e. It's my favourite version of the game by a mile. One of my top 5 RPGs. Great system for Ravenloft. But I also don't feel the need to buy the books all over again. There are some okay changes and some neat improvements, but for every change I like there's one I don't like.
Pro
I like Level 1 feats.
I like getting a feat from a background.
Limiting paladin smiting to once/turn is nicely balanced.
Exhaustion feels simpler.
Grappled feels more impactful.
Three focused spell lists make adding new spells easier. And potentially makes the sorcerer more interesting as they might be able to get a different spell list.
They're reorganizing the DMG. Which was, frankly, a mess.
Goliaths being in the PHB. They're a popular race now. It makes sense to "promote" them.
Swapping out cantrips is useful.
Every class getting subclass features at the same level has some neat design possibilities. (Universal subclasses?)
I like Epic Boons as a universal capstone.
Two-weapon fighting doesn't require a bonus action.
The Study action is useful.
Con
Wild shaping in the druid feels too samey. You can turn into a cat or a horse or a deer or a platypus but your statistics are the same. It's just flavour.
Races feel samey. Every race is just a
rubber-foreheaded Star Trek alien. Each one gets proficiency in a skill and a feature or two that is equivalent to a feat. Except humans, which get proficiency and a feat. They might as well just make each racial power a "feat" and let you pick and flavour your race however you want.
Bards are still terrible in this edition and still aren't given much that's unique to being a bard. They're still full spellcasters despite there being precious few bard-centric spells above 5th level.
I dislike the penultimate level is always a feat. It's unfortunate that you stop getting unique class features after level 18 and really just encourages people to multiclass dip two levels.
I miss the half- races. Half-elves are my favourite race.