I worked on A5E a bit, and while I like a lot of the intention, for now I stick with O5E, though O5E also doesn't really work the way I wish it did.
A5E definitely lets you make distinctive characters. Even two fighters will play differently. But much of the new content feels (understandably) mounted on atop the existing O5E chassis. I imagine a 2nd edition of A5E (A5E2E?) could make all the little flourishes feel more integrated and elegant.
E.g., dividing 'races' into heritages and cultures is great, but some of the cultures are very broad and some are weirdly specific in ways that I think would have been better achieved by making a 'pick and choose' suite of options to build your own culture, and then having a half-dozen examples.
That's just my preference, though. I don't like systems with tons of widgets. I would prefer a game with "energy blast" as a spell, with some ways for it to scale, and some options to personalize it, and a few fun, thematic examples to inspire players, rather than having 75 different spells that often feel just finicky enough that resolving them slows the game down: acid splash, ray of frost, sacred flame, scorching ray, magic missile, burning hands, acid arrow, etc etc.