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

[KorvinStarmast]

"Quest" is one of the simplest fantasy RPGs I've ever seen

Heh, good call.

People seem to forget: when D&D first arose, the people who created it were indies. The 'institutions' at the time were companies like Avalon Hill, Milton Bradley, Parker Brothers, and so on. Board game companies. Card game companies.

As far as revenue streams go TSR grew out of a (games rules) publishing company. There's an old article or letter by EGG that I think I have in electronic form somewhere, where he observes quite correctly that at some point simply publishing books full of game rules for a game hits diminishing returns, and the game is more or less completed. (The TV series was envisioned as a cash generator, among other things). Things like settings and published modules and novels were a way to leverage a revenue stream out of the original intellectual property. Heard on the radio yesterday that D&D is going to have a TV show soon

Role Playing, itself, relies on the players bringing their imaginations to the table. (There was a time when TSR had a tag line "products of your imagination" or something like that).

Which brings me to nurturing the role playing element in this edition. Pex captured that nicely in his post: the background aspect of chargen is (for my money) a nice addition to the game. It seems to me specifically aimed at new RPG players; old hands like me don't need it as a trigger, but, I still find it to be useful in building a three to five sentence, or two paragraph, "who this character is and why they are an adventurer" that gets the RP element off and running.