Which edition do you actually play?
I don't understand how 3e making the game good enough that you didn't have to house rule it is damage.
Most house rules are bad.
Professionals make better rules than amateurs.
DMs running just so they can impose their house rules probably have some agenda...
I've never known DMs to go begging for players. Even DMs everyone knows are bad.
Playing is just so much easier and more fun.
You have 20 wanting to play for every one actually wanting to run.
Turn based initiative makes those resolutions strange, too.
Should you just be able to walk past a fighter just because its your turn not his. No. So he gets to react to it. Reactions keep the game from becoming weird in this narrative you all are so hung up on.
Your odd numbered points seem like conventional explanations of metagaming.
You say you don't like metagaming and want to discuss eliminating it from 5e.
The even numbered points sound like special pleading to exempt any metagaming you do like.
That makes it very hard to discuss solutions...
All versions of D&D including Pathfinder share the fantasy Paper & Pencil RPG similarity with Pathfinder 2.
In the D&D tradition is a strong important similarity. 4e didn't stick to it and ended badly.
Pathfinder 2 is still very much in the D&D tradition. There's just already a lot more to...
In other threads I've heard the whole industry is up to 45 million revenue.
With 15 million people playing D&D.
I've also heard a claim that the goal was 50 million. Between D&D and Pathfinder, we are pretty close to that goal.
And, no Pathfinder 2 is nothing like 4e. It does not want to...
4e failed for want of fans. Even if they all feel spurned by 5e that would be a bad market to sell too.
There may be some convergent evolution. Pathfinder 2 is evolving directly from Pathfinder. Pathfinder evolved from D&D.
4e was a sterile hybrid of D&D and Wow that went extinct and 5e is...
I don't like metagame. If I like something, it must not be metagame.
Contraposition.
Valid in form. Assumes perfect consistency in a subjective judgement.
Vancian old memorization or 3e or Pathfinder preparation is not metagame. Memorizing or preparing spells based on player...
You said 3.5 did not suffer from this class of mechanics that cannot be named.
With Pathfinder 3.5 has had the longest publication history. The most books published. The most support of any Pencil & Paper RPG ever. If it works for you, you need nothing else.
Pathfinder 2 should work for you...