Mind of tempest
(he/him)advocate for 5e psionics
the question is whether the plant is the bit people care about or is the legally not an elf the bit people want, then do we have any plant people in the past where we can start from.Well guess what? To be interesting a race doesn't have to be interesting to you in specific (or to me in specific). It just needs for them to be interesting to a significant subset of people. And if, as you say, there has been a significant number of people who have made not!elves as plants then pretty clearly the demand is there. Even you accept that you were interested in them once (hence the word "anymore")
If "It's been done too often" was a reason to say not to do it then we'd kick out the fighter, cleric, wizard, and rogue.