I mean, we can all be disingenuous about things by writing them down in a way that makes them look different to what they, and simplifying them in a way that is basically misleading. This is a skill the people of the internet have been shown to possess!
It's not really helpful though, is it?
It's absolutely clear-cut that a Daggerheart character is more straightforward. It's not possible to argue they don't have fewer moving parts, except by misrepresenting stuff.
I mean we can all be disingenuous and cherry pick to pretend that moving parts don't exist or that single dimensional moving parts don't move at all. And we can assume good faith and that people can have different opinions they can back up with facts!
As for fewer moving parts? Each part moves more and in more complex ways thanks to a more complex success-with-consequences core mechanic. And Daggerheart characters never in play get to the point of simplistic fights where you walk up to the enemy and play patty-cake, just hititng and missing until one side runs out of hit points and spend twenty minutes between turns. Instead they do mechanically more engaging things, all having hope and stress to spend.
To use an analogy you are saying that D&D has more moving parts because it has three simple pendulums while Daggerheart has a double pendulum. I'm saying the double pendulum has more complex movement.
Like for example:
"Each time they level up they gain some toughness"
What a long-winded and imho misleading way to say "Their two damage thresholds increase by 1 each" (because they literally use your level in them). Your damage thresholds are, let us be clear, level + a value from your armour - for example, I think Chainmail is 7/15, so if you're level 3, wearing chainmail, they're 10/18. That's it. It seems like you're trying to make it sound like they gain HP each level, but they don't.
One of us is being misleading by pretending that because they have the same name hit points are the same thing in both games. And it's not me misleading here by cherry picking one part of the damage-taking mechanics and pretending that it is equivalent to almost the whole of the damage-taking mechanics in the other game. Please stop first misrepresenting by pretending things are equivalent when they aren't and then ironically accusing me of misrepresenting things because I put what I mean that includes the context of the mechanics.
And I note you don't list the abilities a D&D character might get (perhaps because it varies so widely by class/species/Feat/etc.). There are literally L1 D&D characters who have more abilities than L5 DH ones.
In order to do that we would have to get into the subject of ribbon abilities which Daggerheart is fairly free of.
In terms of cruft on the character sheet D&D 5e
easily has more than Daggerheart. You don't have 17 skills in Daggerheart for starters or even stats on a 1-20 range in addition to modifiers. In terms of
meaningful choices both in terms of character creation and in play I'd consider Daggerheart characters more equivalent to half-casters in 5e.
Also you must be well aware that DH characters are more frontloaded than D&D characters, and only go from levels 1-10, rather than levels 1-20. They've already got their subclass, which D&D PCs don't get until L3.
And you must be aware that unless you multiclass D&D 5e characters are on rails. Your subclass is, other than feats (you get every four levels) and spells (which many casters can switch with just a rest, making their spells their equipment rather than part of who they are) for most characters the last mechanical choice you make. Whereas in Daggerheart you make multiple choices every single time you level up. You must also be aware that in addition to hit points it is common for D&D classes (especially among the non-casters) to get one ability per level (again on rails) after level 1 - whereas Daggerheart gives one extra domain ability and wherever you spent your two ticks, which can vary. You actually get multiple choices every level rather than a choice every four levels and a given ability every level.
No I don't consider Daggerheart inherently more front loaded than D&D
