I know it's different for everyone, but I've been playing since 1977 and in addition to playing every version of D&D (I have been in two weekly 4th edition games for the past two years), I've played countless other systems as well. From Merps, DragonQuest, Tunnels and Trolls, Pathfinder just to name a few, and for me. In all the years of playing and all the different systems I've played, I've always felt like I was playing "D&D". But... To me, for the first time ever, when I play/played 4th edition I no longer felt like I was playing D&D. It felt like I was playing something else. For me, 4th removed the magic from the game and replaced it with a set of rules. Those rules may make for a solid game, but they no longer felt magical anymore. When I look at my character sheet of two years now, I don't see "Tomaris Longthorn, mighty Warrior", I see 5 pages full of Dailies, Encounters, and At-wills. It's the first time in my life where I have not become even a little invested in my character. If he were to die tomorrow, I honestly wouldn't care. Before this, I would have done almost anything to save a character from death. A few sessions ago we came across a modified Deck of Many Things, and I drew Talons. The effect was I lost the ability to use Magic Items of any sort. The reality of this in pre-4.0 would have been terrible (as the card should be). For me? who cares. Magic items are almost worthless anyway and it had no real negative effect on my character. I lost a few dailies that I rarely used anyway. Another player drew The Void (his soul is imprisoned leaving his body as an automaton). His reaction to losing a character of two+ years of playing? "Hand me the players handbook and let me roll up a new character. I've always wanted to play a Dwarven Paladin."
The second campaign just wrapped up a month ago and as we talked about what to do next Pathfinder came up. When it was voted on and decided we would switch to Pathfinder, several of the players actually started cheering! I was surprised. Even more surprising, last week after we finished playing in the 4th edition group the GM commented that he was thinking of converting his campaign over to Pathfinder as well. That was anothe shocker as he has said many times in the past how much better he liked the ease of prep and the online tools for 4th.
Where am I going with this? I don't know. Just that I agree I guess that Pathfinder feels more like D&D to both myself and my small group than 4th does.