Inspired by my Which Class is "The Best" thread, and several people's belief that Bard is the best class, let's examine why.
At the core of the class, you have inspiration (still meh to me-- powerful as it is I am not a fan of the mechanic), spells, and expertise. With the proficiency system, bards can fight about as well as warrior classes, especially if you take an archetype that grants Extra Attack. The Lore bard allows you to be a skill monkey. Other archetypes fill other roles as well.
So, a bard could really just be a Fighter/Rogue/Sorcerer or some other combination. Now, since 1E PHB the bard was a Fighter then Rogue then (druid) Bard.
I am sure many of you are happy with the Bard as is. I'm not.
It steps on way too many toes. I would rather see the Bard as the skill monkey (Jack of all Trades is one of my favorite class features just purely based on the flavor idea) and develop an alternative role for the Rogue. I like the idea of Bards having spells, but fewer with enormous variety potential more meets my idea of the spells a Bard would know (various charms, etc. picked up "along the way"). A spell progression similar but a bit better than Paladins and Rangers might work well, or even something like the Warlock with few spell slots but other spell-like abilities akin to their invocations.
Finally, PLEASE do not waste my time (or yours...) simply by saying "the bard is awesome, and great as it is" or something similar. I am looking for ideas on how to remake the bard into something I would actually want to play. Characters already can support each other, so I don't want a class primarily designed to support others. Maybe I am not being clear, but hopefully for anyone who feels the way I do about bards, you get the idea...