BookTenTiger
He / Him
Here's my thoughts:I have difficulty understanding how it unlocks themed parties. Could you go into how that frees you to do so?
I ask this as I played in a halfling-only campaign, and we had a fighter, ranger, magic-user (me), and two thieves. Now, this was in 1e so it's a bit of an apples to oranges comparison. But, as the Greek proverb says, "we're all fruit." Although, thinking about it, I find that I would be far more accepting of a floating ASI if everyone was playing the same race.
Let's say we are doing an All Halfling game. We are restricting the players to the same set of racial abilities.
Because of the way 5e is designed, the players who choose Rogues, Dex-Based Fighters, etc are going to be the most effective.
With floating ASIs, characters who want to play as Halfling Wizards, Barbarians, etc can be just as effective.