4th Edition would still be popular today if only it had been branded “D&D Tactics”
To be sure, much of the hate on 4th edition today comes from people who have never even played it (Or never gave it a chance). When it came out, I believe that the huge and sudden shift in the ruleset is what made 4th edition unpopular and not anything in particular that was wrong with the system. I’ve been playing D&D since 1995, and I learned as a player and as a DM with AD&D(2nd edition). And one of the things I liked so much about D&D NEXT (the beta that became 5e) was how much it reminded me of the classic game I learned as a teen. But as I played more of 5th edition I burned out very quickly, because I found it boring as a player, and Tedious as a Dungeon Master.
I miss how easy it was in 4th to prep for a pre-written adventure. In 5th, I feel like I may as well just write it all myself. I loved how monsters have dynamic combat choices too, not just move and attack. 4th Edition made so many great design choices, and recently I’ve seen other people starting to realize that.
But it’s NOT very much like D&D. 4th fixed the worst parts of D&D, but people hated it because those parts are iconic to D&D:-
Rules Lawyering-
Min/maxing and unbalanced synergies-
dull classes with few meaningful choices-
dull monsters with 0 meaningful choices-
Unrealistic skill checks
Unfair deaths
These problems were rampant in 3.5, and DMs like me were tired of it, and Wizards responded by fixing those problems with some very bold Design choices. The result was great, but didn’t feel very much like D&D. So I think the real issue was ultimately just about branding. Wizards wanted to create a new product line and wanted it to drive the sales of miniatures to both players and dungeon masters, sold via booster packs similar to Magic, and they wanted to retain full rights to the system, instead of racing every other publisher to create new books and new settings. But what they should have done is make it a completely separate line. If that’s what they had done, we still could have gotten 5th edition in the early 2010s then today in 2020, we could be getting D&D Tactics 2nd edition, and they’d have an entire new revenue stream coming in. (Wizards please hire me for Product Development. I’m still available)