Unfortunately, I fear they're not looking at how their changes reverberate through the system. The worst offender is handing out advantage like candy, with no resource cost. A host of abilities and spells offer the player or their team-mates advantage at some resource cost. The HP bloat and ready made surfaces, some produced by cantrips no less, trivializes anything that does damage. They are trivializing the benefits one gets from leveling up. In the end, their removing emphasis of a team of adventures, all with weaknesses and strengths, using their hard earned abilities to overcome challenges. And what do we get return? ""Oh, wow I can set your area effect on fire!" You know the one you wasted a spell slot on. Which is just as well, since if the area/spell actually landed, why would it matter that your team-mates would have advantage to hit due to blinding, enwebbing, entangling, or knocking prone their foe. All your team-mate needs to due is walk behind the target to get advantage. Not even flanking is in the core rules, guess what, this is is why.
