No one is saying halflings don't make good PCs.
That’s what it sounds like you’re saying with your claims that they’re “written like NPCs.”
Nor is it all about mechanics.
You say in the same post where you complain about their lack of weapon and armor proficiencies (despite the fact that very few PC races have weapon and armor proficiencies in 5e and most of them that do are long-lived races, but I digress), their prestige classes and their kits...
(I'm getting a sense that many are getting offended that I am questioning how D&D sets up halflings.)
No one is getting offended, we just think your arguments are nonsense.
Little in 5e lore and combat so I guess my halfling fighter/cleric is an untrained deputy who never got into a fight and barely has quality equipment.
Why? Why make that assumption? Just because the book doesn’t go on about halfling combatants doesn’t mean your halfling character can’t be a combatant. This argument doesn’t hold any water if you aren’t a diehard simulationist.
Let's hope the DM even gave halflings a diety.
I mean, they have deities in FR, which 5e mostly draws from for its assumed setting.
Maybe I'll be some retired adventurer halfling's son who just enherits a decent rapier and light armor. Is the race's warrior adventurers just wearing hand-me-downs? Is that the halfling way?
Sure, that seems like a fine character concept to me. I get the impression you don’t care for it much though, so just make a different one. You can be a halfling soldier if that’s what you want.
Halflings are not treated the same as dwarves and elves but are supposed to be on the same tier as them.
They
should be treated differently, they
are different! That difference is what sets them apart, gives them their own racial identity. Not every races identity needs to be built around militarism, nor should it be. Look, I get it, you don’t like the way halflings are written and that’s
fine! You don’t have to like every race. But that doesn’t mean they “aren’t integrated into the setting,” whatever that even means. It
certainly doesn’t mean they’re written like NPCs.