I think part of the reason for the increased elven page count is that they are lore vampires. They feed on ink that would be better used elsewhere.
Consider the MToF entry for them. Until you get to about Drow, it's just a bunch of different ways of saying how elves are just so special because they're old. Then they spend several pages of ink on lore related to optional non-phb subraces (seriously..no one anywhere needs f-ing "sea elves"). Presumably, this was ink harvested from dwarves and halflings, which don't even receive discussion of the PHB subraces.
Lore vampires.
I SO want stats for this for my Candlekeep Mysteries book.
Elves sustain their long lives by devouring the histories of other races. I LOVE that idea.
Faolyn said:
Except that the half-elf and half-orc should be ways to modify other races (why not a half-elf, half-orc?). What are the 6th and 7th most commonly-played races? Include those.
I have no problems with that.
If it wasn't clear before, I have zero interest in "tradition". Changing things does not bother me in the slightest, usually. And certainly refusing to change things simply because that's the way it was done before is the bane of existence.
I would point out though that
@Chaosmancer has claimed that I "went further".

Not really. My point has always been that the PHB should reflect what people are actually playing, not what a handful of grognards think it should be. The fact that the newer races, like tiefling and dragonborn immediately shot to the top of the list is evidence, I believe, that people are not all that interested in the "Tolkien" races anymore. Folks are ready for D&D to embrace ALL fantasy, not just fantasy written the better part of a hundred years ago or more.
Yes, I accept that Tolkien and Howard and the greats of the genre are all owed a great debt of gratitude. I get that. Totally agree. We wouldn't be where we are today without them. But, that gratitude shouldn't mean that we must never change the game and must remain tied to the choices Gygax and Co made fifty years ago for what to include in the "standard races". The genre and the hobby has changed in the intervening 50 years. We cut our teeth on Tolkien and Howard. Todays gamer cut their teeth on Rawlings and Martin.