About the ability scores. What's being overlooked is that we are talking about player characters here. PC's being an exception to the norm is fine by me. A High Elf Cleric being able to put +2 to Wis is a good change. Elves as NPC's absolutely can still have +2 Dex and be heavily railroaded towards finesse type characters. But I do appreciate the freedom of being able to play a Str or Cha based elf without being penalized for it by my stats costing more, thus having weaker ability scores overall.
What I do have an issue with however, is making all elves baby spellcasters. A martial class spellcaster who only knows 1-3 spells becomes a gimmick. I would like to keep spellcasting separated, or these abilities changed so that elves are magically enhanced rather than just flat out teleporting or throwing Fire Bolts i.e. casting actual spells. Detect Magic is a good example of something that can be explained as a spell-like ability or a sense, rather than literally casting a spell with verbal and somatic components and all.
I don't like the Ardlings. Aasimar are already there to contrast Tieflings (and doing a much better job at it imo). I don't think throwing in more weird fantastical races is really doing anything to improve the game. On the contrary, each new race steals a bit of spotlight from the existing ones, and eventually it will just be a bland mess of everything imaginable. If it was up to me, even Tieflings and Dragonborn would be optional in the base game. I think the unusual races have the most impact when they are properly moderated in any setting.
