Is the roleplay aspect of D&D gone, replaced by optimization?

[Pex]

I ran a six month campaign of D&D 5th edition last year, which I can absolutely say was the best campaign I ever ran in my 20 years as GM by a wide margin.

It also made me realize that D&D is really not what I want out of RPGs. All the best parts of the campaign where when no dice rolls were done for hours, other than the occasional simple skill check. All the parts that I felt were the weakest and I had no fun running where the times were I tried to run dungeons with interesting encounters.

I don't like setting up and running fights.
I don't like dungeons.
I still have no idea how to make exploring dungeons feel like a story.

I still see how it could be a fun game to play a rules-light dungeon crawler where the players do nothing but try to get treasure out of ruined castles, tombs, or caves. But for something where the PCs have goals and motivations, make allies, and create proactive plans to make a change to their world? I just don't see how to do that in large complexes of rooms full of hostile monsters.

Is the roleplaying aspect of D&D gone? I think there actually never was that much to begin with. D&D was always at its best when it knew it was a treasure hunting dungeon crawler. For everything else, it's not the right tool for the job.

For you. That is very important to realize.

For other people it is very much the right tool for the job.

I run games with strong focus on setting exploration, character-setting involvement, character exploration, carefully conducted situations and encounters. Treasure hunting dungeon crawling isn't really much of thing. And for me, D&D (3.5 to be precise) is very much the correct tool. My DMing style is flat-out incompatible with an approach like the Powered By the Apocalypse games. Or Fate.

It's also possible to enjoy both. I'm playing a barbarian in a game, and there have been plenty of sessions where it's all roleplay, hardly a die is rolled, and I'm having a blast. My character went through a lot of growth. It was an accomplisment he likes wearing clothes now and cares about fashion. He's engaged to be married and is also a celebrity champion athlete of the nation. Then there are the sessions where it's all combat. Spells are blasting, swords are clashing, and I'm in the thick of it all and laugh in the DM's face when it's all over I'm still in triple digits of hit points. Even if I'm down to almost single digits it was an awesome fight because I know the punishment my character took yet he still did not drop. When combat is glorified Chess it's all a thrill.

Except the main prompts the game does a good job of pushing are killing things to take their stuff, and finding your way to places where you can do the former. RP and storytelling can be done; the rules don’t prohibit them, but neither do the rules provide a lot in the way of structure or suggestions.

Not a lot but not nothing. Backrounds help out. There's a little game mechanics involved, but it's more about defining your character giving you ideas to work with of who your character is, Even if you don't use the game's suggestions of beliefs, bonds, and flaws it at least gets you to think about it to come up with your own. Even the trinkets table might give inspiration. Why do you have whatever it is? What does the trinket mean? It's your character. The game can give mechanics to how things works, but it is up to the player to provide personality and desires.