Chaltab
Legend
Honestly 5E is still a successor to 4E in some important ways... even if sometimes that means specifically rejecting 4Eisms that arguably should have been kept. Unless you mean something else that shouldn't be named?Well, other than The Edition That Must Not Be Named.
How familiar are you with 3E and 4E? Because something you have to understand is that with those two editions building characters was almost more of the game than actually playing the game was. In 5E, characters have a fairly straight forward list of what they get at each level with relatively few options (though kits are now the mandatory subclasses).What do you think? Do you think 5e feels like 2nd edition? Do you see any other differences? What are the similarities?
In 3E, Feats, templates, magic items and prestige classes all made building characters extremely complicated. Similar, in 4E character creation was more straight forward but still involved picking Feats every two levels, powers every level, as well as Paragon Paths and Epic Destinies. Dark Sun also added Themes that could further modify your chaacter.
5E feels like 2E to some players because it's a return to a much simpler and more play-focused game compared to the build-obsessed nature of the first two WOTC editions.