Wedding stats to races is in fact the only thing that actually does make sense, though of course it isn't political these days, nor is it newbie friendly. But if you step out of D&D for a moment and consider, say, Star Trek, then please don't tell me that you think Klingons and Humans should have the same base stats. Please don't tell me Klingons and Ferengi should have the same base stats.
Just a rapid research and I can find that in the last ttrpg about star trek species have stat bonuses too, but these can be easily compensated by "environment", "upbringing", "academy" and "career events", making them just a drop in the ocean between all the stats you can distribute on your character.
If 5e implemented such an elaborated system to make every class work thanks due to bonuses coming from class, background, ideals and whatnot, something that has been implemented by Pathfinder2ed, sure racial stats would be cool, but at the moment they are just a nuisance and an arbitrary limitation.
I haven't checked any Star Trek rpg system. And I'm not sure why that would be relevant to what I asked. I watched the movies and the tv series, because that's what defines Star Trek lore. Now tell me, are you suggesting that a Ferengi has the same potential for raw strength as a Klingon? That a human has the same potential for constitution as a Klingon?
Those are both yes/no questions. And they're not hard yes/no questions either. There's no trap in them.
Except of course for the absolutely unavoidable fact that Star Trek species are allowed the freedom to be physically different in meaningful ways. I don't see why D&D races should be denied that freedom.
I literally never saw even just an episode about star trek, just the "lower decks" cartoon series. So I can't honestly answer your questions. The only thing I'm saying is: here, you are talking about star trek, here it is the system. Species have a tiny +1 to a few attributes, and the rest of their lives make for the remaining ten or so points. Do what you want with that.
I you have not seen the show or the movies and don't really know the world then perhaps it isn't unreasonable to say that your ability to answer the question is somewhat compromised? I am shocked, of course, that someone hasn't at all seen anything Star Trek, but then people say the same when I've never picked up on Lost, Game of Thrones (read the books, never got around to the tv-show), or that living dead show.
But just to clarify, Klingons are generally bigger and bulkier than humans, they are consistently depicted as significantly stronger than even trained Starfleet humans, and they have all kinds of nifty things in their body to help them survive battle damage. Ferengi are significantly smaller than humans but similar in proportions, they have no tradition for hand to hand combat, and they are not very strong at all, which is a fairly insignificant problem in a sci-fi setting.
