When I feel like a ‘D&D’ experience, a trait-based approach and following the tropes is perfectly sufficient to deliver it for me without three hardbacks full of mechanics.
When I sold off a shelf of D&D books I only kept the Red Box and 1e for nostalgia, and the 4e Preview Books because they are full of ideas (eg: points of light) not mechanics.
I figured The Young Adventurer’s Guides might be the only other useful thing for me, because they are all world lore not mechanics.
But… (1/2)