5e is certainly less of a miniatures game than 4E, and to suggest otherwise is disingenuous.
It certainly is in the sense that it has fewer and poorer rules for using miniatures. That's /also/ something that could be addressed should WotC ever come through with the promised modularity.
In the implied sense of being more suited to TotM, though, not so much. 4e assumes a 5' grid and minis or tokens of some kind. 5e assumes precise measurements & geometric areas given in feet. I've run both TotM. 5e is a bit easier because there's fewer forced movement effects (fewer, not none), and because low hps and AC make the combats faster (one way or another). 4e is a bit easier because of the lower granularity and the fact areas are all just cubes of a few different sizes.
Moreover, there seems to be disconnect over what ’Theatre of the Mind’ actually is, and it’s one of the great myths that the ‘Indie’ movement perpetuated in the last decade. You don’t need any extra rules to facilitate theatre of the mind - people already naturally have an imagination. You just need to create the framework to allow players to engage in the creative imagination of a shared narrative. That’s precisely what you are given with 5th Edition D&D.
It's funny how we're arguing over some things we're basically in agreement on.
Yes, you don't /need/ specific rules to facilitate TotM. In that sense, 5e can definitely be played TotM - see, I'm agreeing with you. In that sense, necessarily, all versions of D&D can be played in that mode. Some - those with more granular measurements, more varied and geometrically precise areas, more opportunities to make positioning matter, and so forth - are a little harder than others.
But, while you don't need them, rules that facilitate TotM, do, tautologicaly, facilitate TotM, they make it easier for the DM to track all that positioning and such in his head. If a game is /intended/ to be run that way, it should really provide such rules. It's not like they're 'rules heavy' or complicated or anything. They're generally 'lighter' than D&D's traditional range/area and movement/positioning rules, for that matter.
The more rules you add, particularly if they pertain to distracting things like grid movement and tactical miniatures play, means the less time you’re players can actually engage with their own ‘theatre of the mind’.
Then, if 5e were really trying to be all 'TotM' it wouldn't have movement and range moves precise down to a granularity of 1', nor would it use a wide variety of exact geometric areas down the same granularity. It would eschew those in favor of a more 'rules lite' TotM-facilitating system.
Why it didn't is obvious: D&D had never done that before - because it's never fully escaped it's roots as a miniatures wargame - and 5e is all about capturing the feel of past editions of 'real D&D.'
