Over and over again, the uniqueness of EVERYTHING is being stripped from it in D&D. [...] EVERY class is virtually pointless. EVERYONE wins a medal and can fill the role of every other character.
Devil's advocate : these design decisions have a positive gameplay impact.
1) Giving each character more abilities means that every turn is more likely to contain an interesting, meaningful decision. For example, my ranger gets boring just casting hunter's mark and shooting his bow. Sure glad I've got all these scrolls, potions and weapon abilities to play with!
2) Blurring the distinction between classes helps alleviate the RNG inherent in the initiative order. For example, the rogue really needs healing but it's the fighter's turn and the cleric will go after 6 goblins. Sure glad I can throw a healing potion!
1) if a character has access to all of the tools in the toolbox the puzzle becomes finding the tool which completed the task with the lowest risk in the shortest time. If a character has a limited set of tools, the challenge is to find the way to utilize the limited toolset in a way that is the least risky. With all the tools at your disposal and no constraint on resources the challenge disappears.
2) Removing the fail state of improper positioning and action management does nothing but lower the stakes of combat. With ower stakes comes lower engagement in the tactical decision making process. It is not only ok to have fail states in games, it is beneficial to the players sense of accomplishment for having overcome them.
