While I am a huge fan of Paizo's games and have been playing PF2e since launch, it's got some pretty large differences. I would heartily recommend it to any would-be D&D players but it's not the dropin all around better replacement for D&D 5e that people say it is.

That is a fair take. I got into PF with 1e and I guess I have to update how I think about it, as it continues to diverge from D&D

I think what kills me about this is all the air that D&D sucks up in this space. There are so many better game systems out there. D&D sits in this place of being very rules heavy and opinionated to the point it makes adapting it to other genres awkward at best. It's not rules heavy and consistent like GURPS which easily handles fantasy and sci-fi and just about any sort of genre you'd like to throw at it. And it's not as free flowing as Fiasco or Dread or Powered by the Apocalypse games which really nail genre focused role playing session without all the rules overhead and learning curve.

D&D “rules” are guidelines, suggestions, it can be what you want it to be. Step up that creative a bit and step outside the lines a little.

This is a cop out. D&D’s rules are very strongly laid out; it rule books spend lots of time on combat, looting, and buying. Anything beyond that (specifically incorporating actual role playing and providing you with guardrails for doing so) is left entirely to the player. No rule 0 changes my mind about this.

If you aren’t playing the rules as written, you are playing a different game.