Yes there is a player who wants to say how he can’t build his character concept without feats but when I ask him to explain the concept really is just ‘cool dpr “
So?
I will toss out there that I’m very particular about how I say it... I express that I’m “not using the optional feat rule’ as opposed to saying ‘I’m banning feats’ as one implies that players are owed it while the other keeps in terminology of the game that it isn’t I in fact it core and instead an optional rule choice
Unrelated to you, I feel like WotC WANTED feats to be a core feature but they got cold feat because people hated feat bloat. They're stuck in this awkward situation where they still print new feat for this 'optional' feature that is totally available in Adventure League.
When simply looking at it between two or three characters, it looks diverse. But extrapolate that out to the NPC's and campaign world at large... and every fighter is using a 2h weapon, polearm or composite longbow.
NPCs aren't built like PCs. If all the Fighter in the world all look like your PCs then it's an issue with the DM. Besides, more NPCs won't be able to afford the high end weapons. They'll be stuck with Shortbows and Spears. I don't get why you're annoyed... what kind of fighters do you want to see? There's really like 5 types of fighter :
-BIG weapon
-LONG weapon
-Weapon and Shield
-Two Weapons
-Long Range Weapon
You can try to go for a DEX build with a Rapier, and maybe you can TRY to make the clearly inferior thrown weapons work, but finesse is more of a rogue thing and thrown weapon is just a subset of two weapons. And using a Rapier doesn't preclude the use of a shield so it's just a subset of Weapon and Shield. If you don't carry a shield you might still have a bonus to your defence somehow that result in the same damn thing.
We even got feats based on damage style now so your Sword and Board can be Mace and Board or maybe your Big Weapon guy now uses a war pick for that piercing damage. If we ignore Long Range Weapon, that's 3 additional option for each of the other four: Slash, Pierce or Bludgeon, resulting in (3x4)+1= 13 'basic' builds for fighter. Without getting into subclass choices.
And that's not even considering the feats that don't ACTUALLY have anything to do with your weapon configuration choices: Heavy Armour Master, Medium Armour Master, Fey Touched, Shadow Touched, Magic Initiate, Ritual Caster, Artificer Initiate, Martial Adept, Inspiring Leader, Resilient, Skill Expert, Charger, War Caster.
And that's not considering Crossbow Experts or Tavern Brawler for the corner cases.
I could make a ton of fun customize builds with synergy and I wouldn't even need to stop thinking about the damage number. Like, I don't know how good any of these I mentioned are mathematically, I just know those combination would work together and feel like building my character's style.
It's not the end of the world and like I said I do allow feats. I'm just bothered by the argument that "I need feats to create my unique custom build~!" when my experience as a DM - and I've DMed for hundreds of players over the past 4 years - is that most players' unique, distinctive custom feat build is one of the same 3-4 builds everyone else is making.
They're fun builds, Burnt.
Also, as someone pointed out, it might be boring for you, but it might be the first time that specific player has use this build so cut them some slack. Now, if they ALWAYS bust out the same character you can start rolling your eyes.