I do see your point (I am however in no position to participate in the debate regarding what paladins are / aren't) - but I agree when you say that one should just try and stay true to the original rules until one actually understands them. It just makes sense to me, however I will not say that anyone shouldn't do what they way - it is a RP world after all. :] But to me, staying to the stereotypes at first helps me build a proper understanding so that I later can go into more complex and compelling character writing
For the sake of fun, I'd honestly say do whatever you want. I like some homebrew. I wish Larian could use material outside of base 5e phb. I'm interested in "Grim Hollow" books and recently Unearthed arcana they have added expansions to dragonborn. Breath weapons that can be used with multi attack that scales off constitution and levels. Separated by three subclasses too. Chromatic can get temporary immunity to their element, Metallic get extra crowd control version of breath weapon, and most excitingly Gem get some kind of weird Gem oriented flight(Idk what it is but it sounds awesome).
I don't blame people for being interested in spicing things up for fun is what I'm trying to say. Do whats fun.
Its why I don't really participate in some of the more heated debates on the forums. Lol. I just wanted to answer your questions and talk about lore.
