Yes, that is exactly my point. Despite my character's stat spread, no halfling could have the overall build I've given her. Not only that, but her racial feats influenced the stats I gave her. If she were a halfling I wouldn't have put the extra points into strength and constitution to beef up her attack and survivability further, and it also influenced my feat choice because I took general feats that synergised with her racial feats. Is she going to be the best combat mage the game could produce? No, there are ways to do better. But people here have complained that the push to remove racial ASI is a min max thing, so the fact she's not the best should be evidence against that. She can function in a unique way as a sorcerer by virtue of being a dwarf, as opposed to just being an inferior sorcerer, as she would be if I made her in D&D.
Highlighted the key detail imo. Racial ASIs are one way of preserving the uniqueness between races; representing the fact that they're physically and/or mentally distinct, not just differently-colored humans. If there was *sufficient* distinction through racial abilities/level-1 feats, then I at least would be more fine with removing ASIs. However, the racial abilities as they currently are don't satisfy that condition for me, and so removing racial ASIs makes the different races so much more generic and homogenous without adding anything back.
E.g., Orcs have Powerful Build. However, this basically has no effect on gameplay, and the little effect it does affects ~all classes the same. Everyone needs to carry stuff. If Powerful Build granted some mechanical bonuses to shoving, str-based weapon attacks/damage, and/or athletics checks: that'd be more appropriate for the "solidly built, muscly, 6+ feet tall, well-suited for melee combat" orcs and could be an acceptable replacement for losing the native +2 Str bonus.
