I have to admire the fortitude you display in taking on such a fraught subject....
I’m a little insane, so that may explain it.
I don't dispute that if you use say 2e (which was getting very storytellerish in some ways), ignoring C&T, as the baseline, 4e is radically more 'tactical' (as well as better balanced, clearer, and more player-oriented, etc). But, IMHO, the tactical aspect was very much there in 1e (and I suspect 0D&D, wargame that it professed to be), area and positioning mattered /a lot/ in 1e, when spell AEs were tightly defined and dangerous to allies, for instance. Furthermore, that difference was one of evolutionary change. 2e pulled away from wargaming and dungeoncrawling roots and hedged a bit towards storytelling and setting-first. In spite of that 2e C&T brought in and re-emphasized tactics. 3e went 'back to the dungeon' and gave us more & better tactical aspects in combat, building on C&T. 4e further built on that.
1e and 3e? Not as much as 4e by a large margin. Well, 3e had stuff happening which would really need a grid, but this isn’t solely about grids. It does involve area effects and positioning, but this is not the only thing. It is also about how individual encounters are built, and how they fill the adventure. It’s also about short-term choices: usually, past editions had much more strategy than tactics. 4e tries to balance that. Combat duration (at least the intended one) is also a factor.
Even about positioning, before Attacks of Opportunity, you mostly could walk through the entire area without someone hitting you with a sword because of it. And the movement-dealing powers? Extra attacks? Tanking being a real thing, now? I could go on all day.
Combat & Tactics, however, seems to be a nice exception.
Also, 4e wasn't more focused on combat (tactical or otherwise) than past editions, in fact, it was the first edition to try to handle non-combat in a more whole-party-involvement, complex/interesting way.
Never said it otherwise.
Finally, strategy could come into 4e (…)
Also never said it otherwise.
That is an interesting insight, though.
Thank you. It took me some time to realize that.