Races & Backgrounds

Over my lunch hour, I blitzed through the first playtest document -- rules that cover races and backgrounds, as well as feats and other content that plugs into the two aforementioned topics -- and I have some hot takes!

• In One D&D, a new character's ability score increases are determined by the character's background choice, not their race. Interesting! Class is the single most important decision in the character creation process, and players often consider only races that provide bonuses to the most important ability scores for that class. That's why we get so many dwarf clerics and elf wizards. However, is this change just going to repeat the same problem and drive players toward particular backgrounds instead of races? If you want to play a fighter, example, why wouldn't you choose the soldier background to get the +2 Strength and +1 Constitution? Maybe it's not an issue, because...
• There are simple and clear rules for creating and customizing backgrounds. I absolutely love these background rules, and I foresee so many campaign-specific options for really cool backgrounds that give players exactly what they want from a stat perspective but also fit neatly into the story. These backgrounds are also very well balanced. In classic 5e, some background benefits were way more useful than others. Now all backgrounds grant a feat. If I'm creating my own unique background, I can select the ability score improvements and the feat (among other, fluffier choices) that work best for my chosen character class and character concept. But hang on, might those background-related feats be a sign that D&D is sliding back into some bad habits?
• Any time feats come up, I get worried. Earlier editions of D&D (and Pathfinder) got bogged down in a "feat tax" that railroaded players into taking specific feats in order to keep pace with other players and (in particular for 4e) with monsters that scaled up aggressively as the players leveled up. If you didn't want that 30th-level kobold to kill you, you really needed to ensure you had every bonus you could possibly scrape together. I really liked that feats in classic 5e were optional, but that does not appear to be the case anymore with One. I'll be keeping a very close eye on feats throughout this playtest.
• What else did I notice? Well, there's a lot more use of the Inspiration mechanic. (Inspiration is so incidental to classic 5e that I feel a definition is necessary here: Inspiration is a single-use benefit that allows a player to gain advantage on a d20 roll.) In One, we'll see Inspiration pop up in all sorts of interesting places, most notably on rolls of natural 20. That's right, if you roll a 20 on any check (sorry, "test" -- I see they've upgraded to the trendier lingo), you get Inspiration!
• Although we only have rules for races and backgrounds at this point, I'm seeing a major uptick in features that you can use a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus and then require a long rest to recharge. In comparison, I see way fewer features that recharge on a short rest. For my beloved fighter, I'll be eager to see whether Action Surge and Second Wind still recharge on a short rest, or if they get revised to this proficiency-based model. 
• Last but not least, Primal magic returns! I'm suddenly having 4e flashbacks, but hey, maybe we'll end up with a One D&D shaman class?!