Dwarves aren't cool anymore

[Psyren]

It does have conequenes though. Like why does every setting need 3 kinds of elves and one of those elves is 'Dark Elves' which are universally reviled with one exception?
(Check your PHB, its in there)

...That's literally what I'm taking issue with? Thanks?

"X playable race is universally reviled," to the extent such a thing should even exist in the printed game at all, should be highly setting-specific (and preferably contextualized by a specific timeframe or period in that setting.)

Now you could say that such shouldn't be core, but that could apply to all sorts of things we have personal frustration with.

Yes, and? There are indeed a bunch of things I think should and shouldn't be in core, but race is the subject of the thread (dwarves specifically, and the design principles in their orbit.)

I happen to think it's inferior to providing a complete race in the book and the supposed downsides to having a complete race in the book strike me as non-issues. YMMV and all that.

Our diverging definitions of "complete race" appear to be the issue then.

Interestingly enough, that's not actually true. It depends on the skill and build in question. 3.5 skill modifiers go higher than 5e "special purpose ability check" modifiers because while 5e ones might sometimes scale better on their own and automatically, 3.5 has an impossible amount of ways to add just another +1-to-Big Number to skill checks – racial bonuses being a source that stacks with all other bonuses.

The racial bonuses themselves tend to be a tiny component of that Jenga tower of bonuses from the other sources though - +1 to +2 in most cases. That's all I was saying.

Sorry, I used evolution as a replacement for "scales up as the character levels". Which, as you pointed out, you endorse and already happens in some segments of 5e.

- M

Ah - then yes. And even the stuff that doesn't scale tends to be useful at multiple levels, such as being able to Hide / Disengage as a bonus action, or having extra base reach and speed.