The thing with D&D is that it's not refining the past ways but forgetting them wholesale. D&D used to have procedures for dungeons, and e.g. reigning your domains as a higher level character. The focus of the game has shifted so it's a different type of game. I'm not saying it's good or bad but...
That's not what conservatism is though. It's about preserving what works and what is true. I get where you're coming from but change for the sake of change isn't a virtue. From the publisher's pov it's always good because you're revising everything so much your fans need to buy everything again...
My 2 cents regarding the premise:
Neutrality in D&D indeed makes more sense in the original Law vs Chaos polarity where Law represent the divine of law of all creation, and Chaos is the destructive force that wants to tear it apart back to the abyss.
In a grounded Good vs Evil context I'd...
It's this way because most people can't handle money. Heck, they can't even eat right or exercise. The average person is poor (in their scarcity mindset), mentally in shambles, unhealthy/chronically sick etc. etc.
No amount of money can fix that and you need personal development. There's no...
For me, the "problems" I see here:
"Things are problematic" <- You have a problem, i.e. an emotion you feel when you read about it. You don't like the emotion. But the method you go about is to censor or blame the text. You get offended for other people, or at least say you do because it's...
Worlds Without Number (my favorite, and easily hackable by adding the best elements from other OSR games)
Dragonbane & Forbidden Lands (from Free League)
Low Fantasy Gaming
Dungeon Crawl Classic (mostly for ideas and the spell system)
Destructive Wrath (the lvl 2 Channel Divinity power) gives you max damage when you roll either lightning or thunder damage, and you get both the Thunderwave spell and the Wrath of the Storm ability at lvl 1.
Clerics can heal both with Cure (a standard action) and Healing Word (a bonus action)...
The only prepared maps I use regularly are Inked Adventures Geomorphs.
The old D&D miniatures maps are great for the climatic battles you have prepped. Otherwise I use a mixture of TotM, whiteboard, 3d terrain etc.
If you prepare your dungeons beforehand, you could try drawing it room by room...
Lots of good advice here: http://thealexandrian.net/gamemastery-101
I disagree with Critical Role being a good model for GMing - it's more aimed to entertain the audience.