I'm not thinking that I'm being unclear, so let me try again. This thread is about Crawford saying "it's not a new edition of the game, it's just a new edition of the books!" Quite frankly I find that to be an incredibly disingenuous thing to say, with the goal of continuing to sell existing books. The upset about the word comes from what Crawford is trying to do with the words as the apply to the books versus the Edition.
What I'm saying is that if this game is a new Edition or not matters to me. Not what it's called. You can call it "reloaded" or "remastered" or, as is currently in fashion, nothing at all. I've explained that right now I'd call it an Edition change akin to 3.0-->3.5, with changes made to classes, feats and spells, but the core rules being the same. That kind of change to an Edition means I don't necessarily need new books.
If it's the kind of change to Editions that's more than that, that changes the underlying rules of how you play the game, it makes me more likely to buy the new books because I'd need them to learn to play the game.
The reason I'm discussing in this thread is because of what Crawford said about the term. And how that's frustrating to me. He's playing a semantic game. I find it likely as we get close to launch, we'll hear about all these awesome new things about the game that you really will need the new books to experience.
Okay, I think I get more of your frustration, but I would argue Crawford isn't being disengenious or playing a semantics game. He is telling you exactly what you want to know.
The books coming out in 2024 are new "editions" or new versions of the Core Rule Books from 2014. But they are not a new edition of the game of Dungeons and Dragons. I know you currently think that is a distinction without purpose, but to me that is very clear. The 2024 books will still work with Curse of Strahd, with Radiant Citadel, with Fizban's Treasury of Dragons. They even work with Tasha's, though to a lesser extent, because the Artificer isn't being republished yet, but they clearly expect people to keep using it.
Now, take a moment and think of other edition changes of the game itself. The big ones. I have copies of things like The Complete Divine from 3.5 and it is completely and totally unusable in 4e games or 5e games. I can't run the Red Hand of Doom in a 4e game, I might maybe be able to heavily modify it to run in a 5e game, but at best I'm just going to be taking the plot points and adjusting everything else. Same with some of the 4e material. You couldn't run Kingdom of the Ghouls from 4e or Prince of Undeath with MASSIVE edits, because those games expect you to be over level 20. The 4e Martial Power book is also just completely unusable in 3rd edition or 5e games, none of the rules work.
As they get closer to the release, are they going to be hyping the release? Yes, obviously. Just like the newest Samsung Galaxy S23 is getting hyped to phone users and the newest 2024 Ford Ranger is getting hyped to Ford Truck buyers. But that isn't disingenuous or lying to you, that's just selling a new product.
Do you need these revised rulebooks to keep playing DnD and published adventures? No, just like you never needed Xanathar's or Tasha's or Volo's. Do you need these revised rulebooks to have all the newest stuff that the community is going to start adopting as standard? Probably yes, just like with Xanathar's or Tasha's or Volo's.
