This is a very bad change. Sadly minmaxers who have no clue about role playing are more and more dictating how role playing games evolve, leaving the actual role playing people who had no problem sacrificing a 5% on a D20 roll for a interesting character concept.
This has nothing to do with min/maxing; arguably the previous system has better min/maxing options. This has greater FREEDOM, allowing people to not feel overly gimped simply by picking a race. There's a reason half-elves and humans are basically the most played. I don't need to be optimal, but I'd at least like to not feel awful about picking a race that isn't, by base, designed for a class. I'm 100% pleased with this BECAUSE of roleplaying opportunities.
It all has to do with minmaxing. A character is not gimped because he has 5% less success chance. Only minmaxers think that. And humans are in all RPGs the most played race, regardless of power because people identify with them the most. Nothing prevented people from making any race and class combination they wanted. And they were all playable and effective. The only thing limiting FREEDOM were some people who refused to play anything not completely optimized and so they whined till WotC, sadly, listened and traded flavour and verisimilitude for minmax potential, showing how little they care about their old fans. And the laughable thing is, the minmaxers are now just discussing which racial special ability is best for which class to exclusively play that. Just look at the barbarian thread here...
