You're missing the forest for the trees. One, my experience of the game is mine, theres not a lot to argue with. I use strong concepts to build characters and I'm strongly class agnostic about the tools at hand. Most of my strong cleric concepts are actually better served by the Paladin class, for example, just like my preferred assassin build ismore fighter than rogue.
Two, it's not a copout, I just dont care about what WotC thinks I should be doing with class X. I'll pick whatever class works. If the concept calls for an armored caster I'll go Cleric or maybe Paladin. If I want a skill monkey I'll play a Bard and maybe ignore all the music and performance stuff. Whatever gets my concept off the ground. I'll ignore or reskin whatever needs it. The important part is that I'm always really excited about my characters.
Two, it's not a copout, I just dont care about what WotC thinks I should be doing with class X. I'll pick whatever class works. If the concept calls for an armored caster I'll go Cleric or maybe Paladin. If I want a skill monkey I'll play a Bard and maybe ignore all the music and performance stuff. Whatever gets my concept off the ground. I'll ignore or reskin whatever needs it. The important part is that I'm always really excited about my characters.