Well, I don’t really like a total lack of racial attribute bonuses or penalties, though I can see the reasoning behind those changes. Sure, it may be thematic for orcs (being stronger but less intelligent than humans on average) to have +2 Strength and -2 Intelligence, but is the game better for there being no orc PC wizards and most of them as fighters or barbarians? Realistically, a halfling should receive far more than a -2 to Strength, considering the fact that a 6’ tall 200 lbs human would scale down to a 3’ tall 25 lbs halfling, they should barely be able to fight at all against humans in normal combat. But, as a game, it might be fun to play a halfling fighter or an orc wizard.
It reminds me of my biggest issue with gender based modifiers. Not that they are necessarily unrealistic, but if men get +2 Strength and women get +2 Charisma, then all of the PC fighters will be men and all of the sorcerers (or sorceresses I should say) will be women.
And, if someone wants a weak halfling or a dumb orc, they can always use Strength or Intelligence respectively as dump stats, assuming that the players have control over their characters’ attributes, which is standard in most games now. In fact, bonuses and penalties to attributes basically become obsolete once you go to a point distribution system for attributes instead of rolling. If you want a stereotypical orc or halfling, you can assign your points to be that way, but should it be impossible (or just significantly punished) to make a non-stereotypical character? Is it bad wrong fun to have an orc wizard with an intelligence of 18 or a halfling barbarian with a Strength of 18? I don’t know, it’s all subjective. A lack of racial attribute bonuses or penalties does seem to give players (and potentially DMs) more options regarding character design.
I have sometimes thought that it would be neat to give each race different bonuses or penalties based on class. Kind of like how Pathfinder just favored class leveling based on race. An orc wizard might get a certain orcy bonus to wizard stuff while a halfling fighter might get a special bonus based on being a halfling. Every race and class could have that combination - so as to combine flavor and versatility.
Of course, the ultimate version of that would just be to allow every ability through point but character design, but there are countless other systems that allow for that and D&D is distinguished by having relatively rigid classes and even races.