I haven't seen a lot of Essentials stuff in play, but there are 13 classes: barbarian, bard, cleric, druid, fighter, paladin, ranger, rogue, assassin, wizard, sorcerer, warlock, vampire; and 20 builds: 2 each of fighter (knight, slayer), paladin (cavalier, blackguard), ranger (hunter, scout), wizard (mage, witch, sha'ir, bladesinger) and warlock (hexblade, binder). The only ones that are obviously same-y are the mage, witch and sha'ir, and the only one of those builds that is really obviously half-baked, I think, is the binder warlock (I think condemnation of this build is pretty universal. There may be other classes or builds that have come in for criticism, but I haven't noticed universal criticism of any of the others.)
I personally wouldn't want to play an Esssentials-only game: my own game has a CHA paladin, a non-elementalist sorcerer, an invoker, a PH tactical fighter, and an archer-ranger/cleric. But I think Essentials gives a pretty playable range of PC types.