Mind of tempest
(he/him)advocate for 5e psionics
blind honouring of history rarely gets you anywhere and let's face it the ranger has some deep fundamental identity problem hence id does not work well to give it subclasses or get it to fit in the setting. so why not rework, move to a lesser position or cut that which does not work well?You could say much the same about Rangers.
Some stuff is just because it was; the game has a history, and people want parts of that history honored.
Most of the other small race choices you list weren't original.
Gnomes weren't core playable until 1989; halflings were core playable from 1978 if not before. Goblins (1993) and Kobolds (1993) were much later.
I want to remove it so you can get something better? why would I want you in a grey one-room cell when you could be living it up in a mansion?Goody for you. Why do you want to stop the rest of us who are enjoying our halflings?
that just removes the gnome not fixes the halfling.That's the race I would adjust, but the adjustment would to be to put the forest gnome as a type of halfling and the rock gnome as a type of dwarf. I would do this because the gnomish subraces have almost nothing to do with each other.