As someone who played and liked BECMI, AD&D/1e, AD&D/2e, D&D/3e, D&D/3.5e – and thought each had their strong and weak points, and wouldn’t mind playing any of them again though the gratuitous mechanical complexity of AD&D/1e is a bit over the top – but rejected 4e, I find that 5e is (while incorporating and furthering in some areas the mechanical simplifications of 4e) much more in the spirit of the pre-4e versions than it is like 4e, and it fairly quickly became my clear favorite version.