Just yesterday I was happy that this subforum didn't have a single post since March 27th. Well, this thread isn't ranty.
I personally figured it was necessary until after the 5e book release. I'm expecting this issue and all manner of other issues to resurface once we see the finalized form of the books and mechanics. They're dormant at the moment only because we aren't continuously fed information via the playtest packets, but once the actual books come out people will come to complain about what did/didn't make the cut.
Granted at that point it'll be too late to change anything but it will happen all the same.
I suspect this subforum will vanish anyway. Whenever a new edition comes up, there's some kind of edition war. The moderators have to tamp it down. Maybe 5e will get its own subforum. (If worst comes to worst, maybe edition warring in it's entirety will have its own subforum, but I think the problems were caused by only a small number of people.)
Clearly I haven't been keeping up with 5th edition as much as I should be I'm sure. But Damage on a Miss.... why did this suddenly blow up? I mean, 13th age has this and I literally heard NOTHING negative about it. Then 5th edition does it and it's the worst thing ever apparently? Why was this not brought up with other games? Did I just miss it or something?
Damage on a miss wasn't universally popular or unpopular, and various polls showed a split between those who liked it and those who didn't. Having said that, I think most people on both sides didn't think much of it one way or another. People who don't like 4e rarely point at Reaping Strike (a damage on a miss at-will) as the main reason for disliking it. People who don't like 3e or an older edition don't bemoan the lack of a martial damage on a miss option generally. I can think of plenty of weakpoints of those editions that have nothing to do with damage on a miss.
Unfortunately, a small number of contributors to this website were virulently against damage on a miss, and started creating multiple threads on the main D&D board attacking the issue. I think these people were generally fans of 5e but didn't want any 4e or "unrealistic" rules in it, but I can't say for sure because I put all those people on my ignore list.
As for 13th Age, it's drawing mainly upon 4e fans, specifically those who wanted faster, slightly less complex combat. Not every 4e fan is actually a fan of martial damage on a miss, but most aren't going to drop the game like a hot rock due to that as to them it's not a big deal. Damage on a miss does come up more often in 13th Age than in 4e, because literally every martial attack does this. I doubt 13th Age would be less popular if it didn't have damage on a miss. I presume the designers wanted to ensure that missed attack rolls weren't terrible. (Missed attacks come up a lot, early in battles, due to 13th Age's different math.)