I remember when 5th Edition came out and WotC tried to sell the spiel that there were three equal pillars. My comment: just because you say it does not make it true The game still devoted the main chunk towards combat, and the three-equal-pillars talk? I consider it just marketing.
They were trying to move away from Wyatt 4e "D&D is a game about killing horrible monsters, not traipsing through fairy rings interacting with the little people" - that's close to 'actively suppressing' exploration & social interaction. 5e 'gave permission' to do those things, which was enough for many people and helped make 5e very popular.
Personally I don't think mechanical support is a good thing for social interaction play; it tends to get in the way since most of us know how talking works IRL. Some more exploration type mechanics might have been nice.