From my experience, the only people who prefer 3.5 over 5e are those who have never actually played 5e. At least I never actually met someone who wanted to go back, even Pathfinder 1.0 is better than 3.5 IMO.
Perhaps, because yes I have not played a TT game using 5e rules because I have not had a gaming group to play with for quite some years now. It's what happens when you and your friedns all become middle-aged and have careers and families. I have only read up on 5e, which I have done quite a bit of, and what I see is a much more accessible system with more streamlined and simplified and easy to understand rules. Nothing wrong with that, and that is what explains 5e's huge popularity, but I am one of those people who likes complexity and yes even number-crunching.
