Much as we rag on WotC, I do think 5e was actually a good game when it was in the first couple years. The errata and terrible new publications make it worse, but you can still find the older prints I’m pdf form. So 5e is probably their best edition.
3.5 was good, but I found it was not particularly smooth to use.
Finally, 4e is a good game. I stand by that. It is, however, not a good D&D game. If it had been marketed as a spinoff and 3.5 support continued, there probably would not have been the implosion we saw. Granted, it’s probably a good thing that D&D as a brand collapsed for a while as it spawned pathfinder and allowed other games to get. Foothold in the market.