I dont think anyone felt 'gimped' by the old style of ability scores tied to race. This has never been a complaint I ever heard until recently by a certain sect of people that has zero logic. Different fantasy races being better/worse than other fantasy races makes perfect sense. Real world politics should have nothing to do with it. The strongest halfling should not be as strong as the strongest halforc (not counting magic and other factors). It's just that simple. But, that's the way it. We gots to sucks it up in BG3.
Humans and half elves are picked for the most obvious reason - they are human and half human and they most look like humans. Same why male characters are more popular than female characters - more male players are playing. If more women were playing the base character would be female.
This change has zero to do with roleplaying and zero to do with sales.
