Wow, this thread is unexpectedly vitrolic.
Personally I loved 3/3.5e It is what I was tought to play, and it was fun. (I didn't pay attention to numbers much)
I jumped on the 4e bandwagon, and fell flat on my face. Everything I enjoyed about 3.5e (Dragonborn Lore, gnomes as a race, substantial differences between classes, undead hordes, summoning, shapeshifting) it all seemed to be shafted in favor of making a P&P WoW Clone.
Now IDK they may have fixed some of my gripes. But 3 years ago when I started the RPG club at my college (because I was the only one with experience, and watching noobs try to GM was painful (a lot of GM vs player)) I considered 3.5e, but figured it was too optimization heavy, and I considered 4e, but the classes still felt like a jumbled mush of poop. So in the end I settled on Pathfinder.
Since then, both myself and other have run a few 4e games, and every time by majority request we go back to pathfinder. Ultimatly 4e just isn't as fun, it's a bit like the world where everyone is equal, but everything is a dull grey mess. Only in 4e there are archetypes, so imagine a world with 5 colors, and no shades. That is honestly the best way I can describe my experienc with 4e.
Honestly I like 5e, if WizardsHazbro wern't literally being Satan and giving EA a run for thier money in terms of fucking over the community for profit, I would def run a few games. However several good community websites have been DMCAed, and Wizards revoked the full OGL, thus forcing them to take down legal 3.5e and Pathfinder stuff. Which is honestly a bit of a dick move.
They've just done several things in the name of money that leave a bad taste in my mouth. (they attacked sites and 4-6mo later release subscriber versions of the community sites) Also I cannot forgive how badly they shafted Bard's saving throws, Int and Cha, Really. Do u know how many Int and Cha saves there are in 5e, Not Many!
Pathfinder isn't perfect, but it's fun, and since my games are usually run on the semerter basis, we usually go from level 1-4 is -> 11 tops, and caster's are rarely an issue. I love how they have been giving ability pools to martials. It lets martials have extra options in combat, but it feels different from mages (something 4e fucked up with).
5e is good yeah.