Was 24e Good?

Forgive me for the rather clickbaity, title, though I do mean to ask the question.

We are coming up on two years of 24e now, given that it was around this time in June in 2024 that the community really got their first indepth look at the new changes/features/systems that would print in the 24e PHB relatively unchanged. It's got me thinking, what's you opinions on it?

Now that the dust has settled and time has passed (yes WE are old), I personally believe 24e was a largely successful endeavour, but to an extent that I don't know if WOTC would be happy with. I think the consensus came out fairly quickly that the bump in terms of improvement was maybe 10-20%, and I think that's largely fair, though I'd maybe push it to a further 30-40%. Reading through some of the 2014 PHB recently had me thinking wow, alot of this really feels archaic now and I can't imagine running it that way, even if I'm looking at simple things like slightly different spells or more restrictive class resources.

That being said, I personally think there are a few major misteps with 24e, and a general oversight. The first I think everyone is tired of seeing/hearing about, at least I am, so I won't linger on it, but Ranger really did take a step backwards from it's Tasha's iteration, and it confuses me to this day that WOTC never even bothered to put out an amendment or react at all to the clear community reaction on that front.

The second major one for me personally is weapon masteries. Not because they are bad, in fact I have greatly enjoyed interfacing with them on a particular Bardadin I have played pretty much since 24e's launch, but because they lack depth. The joy of interacting with them at level 2-5 is the height of the system, as increased options causes them to fall by the wayside in terms of things happening, and the lack of development of them as the levels progress lead them to be a simple side effect on most weapons. I also maintain one of the first complaints I had with the system, that topple being an important save on every attack is super bloated. We homebrewed that away quickly at my table, making it only apply to the first attack you hit a creature with, but they take additional damage equal to your PB if they fall. It's a slight nerf but the reduced bookkeeping is a saint.

The biggest problem in my opinion with weapon masteries though, is that Fighter is so seemingly reliant on them as a core part of the class, and frankly the innovation to martial gameplay we were softly promised in the leadup to 24e has failed to manifest in any real way, leaving Fighter's especially somewhat lacklustre in my opinion.

The oversight I mentioned is along similar lines, which is Rogues. Our subtle sneakybois need some help in 24e, and it seems a fairly common consensus that they are one of the worst classes, if not the worst, in the game. I think cunning strikes is a fairly half baked feature (as is brutal strike for barb, but they have rage to fall back on and I think barb needs less utility options to feel important), as well as the somewhat revived discourse about level 9 subclass features, thanks to Phantom rogue being reprinted. I have actually played phantom rogue for a campaign (lvl 1 - 11, old print obviously), and let me tell you, that 3 -> 9 slump was genuinely some of the least fun I've had with a PC in my life. I treasure that campaign as I do all of them, but like Ranger, I find it astounding that WOTC didn't do anything about this during the build up to/release of 24e. Personally, I think reliable talent should simply swap places for 9th, giving rogues evasion and the subclass feature at 7th, but that's just how I see it.

I didn't mean this to end up as a complaint thread, because like I opened with, I really like most of the changes in 24e. The overall streamlining of the game is a really good change in my opinion, as well as the move to basically all feats being half feats to reduce the amount of time you feel like you can choose the fun thing (feat), or the actually good thing (ASI).

Additionally, I really like the tying of origin feats to backgrounds, and the general powerboost of the game makes everyone feel more heroic in tier 2/3 play which I actually am a fan of, because 14e was never a true gritty dungeon crawler without significant changes to the system, so I think it works.

I want to hear what you all think though, is 24e good? Now that we've had an extended time with the system and the hype/discourse around it's release has settled, what is your take on it? Is there anything you want to see changed or reverted about the new aspects?

I'm really interested to know.