Going all the way back...
The Edition Wars are stupid.
Agreed.
Play whatever edition you like and stop caring if other people like an edition you don't.
It's really hard to listen to people crap on things you like. It's also, apparently, really hard to simply ignore things you don't like.
I don't care, and so long as you can play what you like, you shouldn't care either.
That's part of the problem. The current edition will (almost) always be the most popular. So if you don't like the current edition, you ability to play the game you like is limited.
The same applies to settings, races, classes, and so on.
Paradoxically, to me, where this comes from is people wanting to
not have to fight about things. If a race or class is in the game by default, I have to fight to exclude it. Because inevitably someone will want to play that thing and I'll have to say no, argue about why, and be put in a position to decide if I want to keep this thing out of the game more than I want to bring a given player into the game. A lot of people are adverse to conflict in meatspace. They seem to be more conflict seeking in webspace.
If something changes in a new printing of the thing I like or a setting is updated in a way I don't like, I can ignore it and use the older version.
Same as above. The current edition is (almost always) the favorite and anything that's default is expected, so using an older edition reduces the player pool and changing things from the default expectations is a fight. It's much easier to have a fight in webspace than meatspace, so people bizarrely think that hashing things out online will somehow make their meatspace arguments go away, or they'll be so convincing that the devs will see and make a change. It hasn't worked yet.
I like optimizing the characters that I play. I like finding mechanical quirks that go together in interesting/unique ways and play a character competently built for combat. That doesn't mean I dislike roleplay, I love roleplay, but I also enjoy the "game" parts of the hobby as well as the other parts. My playstyle might be different from yours, and we might not be able to play at the same table because of that, but my version isn't badwrongfun and neither is yours*.
I think that's the bit that a lot of people forget. Some playstyles are simply incompatible. There's nothing wrong with any given non-abusive or non-bigoted style of play, but it's wrong to pretend that all styles or compatible. Some styles simply decrease the fun of other players who don't enjoy that style at their table. It's still not wrong, it's just wrong for a group, or wrong for a given table. Not everyone is a good fit at every table. We need to normalize that.
I'm certainly not going to demand that a setting/race/class never gets published again, or say that the game is ruined forever because of one minor change, or say that playing the game in a different way from me is objectively badwrongfun. I'm just going to continue enjoying the hobby and playing how I want to play.
What's minor to one is a fundamental and unacceptable setting alteration to another. People who are not fans of a setting have a different POV than casual fans of a setting who have a different POV than obsessive fans on that same setting. It's not about who's spent more or who has bigger...credentials, but acknowledging one's stance on the setting might be a good idea. But then, this being the internet, everyone is likely to claim being an obsessive fan of everything just to have more perceived credentials.
I'm just a guy that likes gnomes, artificers, Eberron, optimizing, and playing 5th Edition. And there's nothing wrong with that, just like there's nothing wrong with liking Kobolds, Bards, Dragonlance, prioritizing roleplay, and playing 3.5e.
I'm just the referee who loves Al-Qadim, Dark Sun, Mystara, Ravenloft, and Spelljammer...the player who loves playing dwarfs and so-callled monstrous races...and the gamer who finds hard-core optimization so off putting that I'd rather not game than have it at my table.
And the people in this hobby that non-jokingly tell people that they're wrong for liking any of that can mind their own goddamn business.
That's the trouble with an internet discussion forum. There's other people who have differing opinions.