Oh for crying out loud. Between the PHB, PHB2, Assassin, Artificer, and Swordmage there were 19 classes on the old structure. With about four different class types each before you even start selecting powers. They weren't just designing to AEDU, they were strip mining the design space as is obvious when we look at the PHB 3. There are attempts at six new classes in there. One (the Monk) is outstanding - and isn't classic AEDU.
Hmm, At-wills, encounters, dailys, utilities, no odd-ball class features, uh....what? full discipline? Thats a beautiful
expansion of the classic AEDU, not the wholesale abandonment that these classes represent.
On top of that; Slayer, Knight, Thief, Hunter, Scout, Hexblade, Cavalier, Blackguard, Vampire looks like class bloat is worse than ever under the e-banner. When you take into account that every single one of those above classes can be done better as a defined build of an existing class(ok, maybe the Vampire is unique) it gets even worse.
Three are not AEDU at all and are very simply broken - the Power Point mechanism does not work. And of the two remaining, one (the Seeker) is a solution in search of a problem and the other (the Runepriest) is simply fiddly and annoying without really adding much to the game.
Psionics need some help to get right, thats true. They are still AEDU, tho. The E's are just hidden under the at-wills as augments. Seeker is a good concept poorly implemented and the Runepriest is an excellent class in need of expansion that has fallen victim to the abandonment of 4e design.
A dead 4e would be one that stopped growing. One that stuck with the AEDU concept having done just about all it could with it. And the new classes it put out would be of the quality of the Seeker or the Runepriest. Instead what we have got is the game growing. Producing classes that the less tactically and mathematically adept can play (e.g. the Knight, the Slayer, or the Thief) - one of my players has recently switched from a Wizard to a Hunter and is enjoying the game so much more now. 4e has grown into design spaces it couldn't previously reach.
To the contrary, 4e has been butchered to the point that boring and redundant play over 30 levels is praised and that diversity of choice is subverted to "MOAR POWAH". PCs stopped gaining new tricks and in return are just handed more and more damage as their only option. Boring game design.