My players all have at least the PHB, one has a copy of Tasha's, and another also has the Monster Manual, DMG, Volo's Guide to Monsters, and Xanathar's Guide to Everything on top of the PHB. They don't buy adventure books and mostly don't get monster books, but they certainly ted to buy more player-oriented material.
Coming into 5e as my first edition, I had absolutely no problem with the lore connected to elves/dwarves that was changed in Mordenkainen's (well, besides the victim-blaming for the Duergar, that is). I quite liked the gnome lore, and I agree that the halfling lore was very forgettable (almost like
they should be the ones called the "forgotten folk", instead of gnomes
). I also really liked the Shadar-Kai lore. I wish they had gone a bit more in-depth with lore for the Raven Queen and Vecna, but what they gave was really good, IMO.