That would make sense, where the player could choose which aspects of their parentage carried over. I think the main problem with Half-Elves and Half-Orcs in the D&D/FR setting is that they never really did the legwork of establishing those as discrete types, like with independent races/cultures/histories, in the same way they set stuff up for the other core fantasy races. In D&D this stuff was left intentionally vague, with the assumption that it was maybe more like "my father was a human and my mother was an elf" and that's pretty normal here - such that the same thing always results, with the same set abilities and the like passing down.
I get the strong impression that it was set up in 1e mainly to accommodate Tolkien. So in Tolkien you have Half-Elves but they're basically the Dunedain or the Numenoreans, with the common ancestry going back into murky prehistory stuff for those initials parings. You know, the established culture heroes, Beren and Luthian, Ælfwine, Elros, Aragorn etc to give a subset of Humans that are essentially Humans + (mixed with Elves and Maiar) who still basically look human but have Elf traits. I also get the feeling that this is maybe more what they're going for now. So sorta like Luthien/Elros/Arwen choosing to be mortal, whereas Elrond choses to be an Elf, and then the player has to choose which side of their heritage they favor during Char creation. But it'd be nice if there was some mechanical element to it, so it didn't feel like just totally purely aesthetic. The new description provides a lot more genealogical flavor, but again doesn't go into a ton of detail. Probably, as said on previous pages, because the PHB is basically 'setting agnostic.'
Still, FR as the kitchen-sink flagship setting has to make use of and normalize all the material that's in the PHB. That's basically been it's purpose as a setting for the past couple decades. Everything has to have some niche and be worked-in and accounted for within the Realms. So I'd expect some reason why Ardlings are suddenly everywhere in FR in the next ed. I do think they're more appropriate to Planescape than FR, but those settings are both gateways that kinda work in tandem. They'll probably do something similar to what they already did with the Tiefs - like heaven crashes to earth somewhere and we've got heavenly refugees to go along with the devilish ones we've been meeting now in BG3. It works for me I suppose. FR is already a pretty high-magic high-fantasy setting.
I think they could revive Greyhawk as an alternative low magic low fantasy setting, maybe making it exclusively Human and organized more around class/background than fantasy race? But it's tricky cause that setting already includes a lot of established and overlapping material. Same deal with Dark Sun I guess, though it's probably less well known. They could create a new setting I suppose, but then I don't think that went over particularly well last time, with Eberron being kind of forgettable in my view. I think they should get away from steampunkish vibes, and just go more classic sword and sorcery with at least one setting.
A crossover with the Conan IP might be kinda cool for a new setting. I remember a while back that the rights were changing hands, and it's a very natural fit there. The world I mean. I get the vibe, and some might prefer a GoT style setting but without just being a straightup GoT game hehe. It's curious to imagine what D&D might have been able to do with something like GoT or Dune before it hit again so massively, but I guess that's stakes-to-high with too much primary source material baked-in and money to license, whereas D&D is a more generic comfort food dish we can eat on the cheap hehe. I could see room for a Greyhawk revival though. I prefer FR myself, but at least it has a classic angle. I also have a soft spot for Dragonlance, but that's pretty high fantasy too. They have 3 settings that are very similar in style though, no matter how you slice it, cause 1e was all about those Elves and Dwarves and Dragons.
