Power isn't the determination as to why things get played, it's enjoyment. Only the fringe players (who go online and talk about the game with strangers) usually pay that much attention to it.
That's a pretty strong statement; I'd want more than just impressions to back up something so absolute. Or, rather, I think this forgets that no game has a singular psychographic profile for its audience. While the Timmy/Jenny/Spike trio might not be a perfect map to D&D's players, there's a reason 4e made Robin Laws' player-type stuff an official
thing in the DMG. There absolutely are players who don't go on forums like this, but who care about the mechanical power instead of, or in addition to, the themes of an option. I've known multiple such people who have never touched a D&D forum in their lives, but who absolutely factor power into their choices, or worse, feel compelled to avoid options they'd
like because those options are weak. (Note, my point about knowing multiple of them is not meant to say the first thing about the
ratio of such people in the overall population; it is only to emphasize that not only do such people
exist, but it wasn't just a one-off fluke with a single person I knew.)
might be a controversial statement, but for some time now, I've been thinking that the gnomes cover the ''forgotten folk, master artisan and earth diggers'' archetypes somewhat better than the dwarves, without the rigidity that comes with them. The minotaurs can also cover the ''great builder'' archetype in new ways.
For the mirthful or noble fey-kin, I do think that the satyrs or centaurs can also bring a breath of fresh air if a table is getting tired of the classic elves.
Yeah, dwarves and halflings could really use some updating. I'd actually like to see halflings take up
more of the hobbit behavior, tbh. First, of all the races, they seem like the ones most likely to do things like domesticating farm animals, which can have all sorts of implications in a world where "owlbear"
could be a domesticated species. On that front, heck, make
cowboys/cowgirls and "lone ranger" stuff a halfling cultural thing. That'd almost certainly increase their overall popularity. Second, actually make use of the fact that Bilbo and Frodo were landed gentry, and develop a sort of two-pronged cultural thing, with the wilder, woolier, down-to-earth Samwise-types contrasted against the lettered, estate-owning, genteel Bilbo-types. Where wood elves are the somewhat-scary guardians of forest and vale, "plains" halflings are the swaggering-too-big-for-her-britches ranchers and cattle-rustlers. Where high elves (or, my preference, eladrin) are the haughty masters of the arcane living in crystal spires overlooking mist-shrouded lands of mystery, "hill" halflings are the congenial gentlefolk-farmers who would love to chat about philosophy and art with you over tea once they've finished this golf game. The halfling rogue could be an Aussie-inspired sheep-thief, or a Pink Panther-style gentleman-thief, for example.
As for dwarves...that one's more difficult. Perhaps draw in associations with pastoralist, herding peoples? The staunch traditional dwarves can probably remain as they are, just with a more beefed-up sense of what they're about (more or less, iterate on the dwarves presented in Tolkien, especially Thorin and Gimli). Then tie the surface-dwarves to
horses (or other travel-animals), archery, hit and run tactics. Weave in stuff from Mongolia and maybe Sparta, and make references to pastoralist cultures worldwide like the Sami, Zulu, Berber, Tuareg, etc. peoples. The "mountain" dwarves are those who hold to their old traditions and care about long family lineages, thousand-year religious traditions, family feuds centuries old, etc. While the "plateau" dwarves are far more libertine (in several senses) than their cousins, ranging across the steppe and exploring, sailing, conquering, etc.
These are, of course, just spitballed ideas. I haven't really thought about rebuilding these races specifically (though the whole plateau/pastoralism thing
is what I did with the main dwarven homeland in my Dungeon World game). But I think this demonstrates there are directions we could go that respect the source material and what people have enjoyed about these races, while enriching them and hopefully broadening their thematic appeal.
