Race and class separated, or race-as-class?

(examples of race-as-class provided. Race/class separation would just have Race --including human-- be sources of Advantage on some rolls)

P.S.: I really do not like this Elf class I wrote

generally, because the fiction is supposed to be neccessary for the RPG to be an RPG rather than just a G, you want something that looks like fictional cause --> mechanical effect --> mechanical cause --> fictional effect

as an example:

in more practical terms, we might refer to the game as taking place in two realms: FICTION and MECHANICS

rules can actually be completely non-mechanical, and completely fiction-based. For example:

Mechanics might more accurately be called "numberstuff" but, hey

Well, it looks like this (I have 3 combat systems, this is the one for city mode) and I'm not sure if you'd call that fluid or what... it's pretty well-defined, imo?

Why do you like playing a thief?

What do you get from them that you don't get from playing any other class?

It's interesting to contrast this with other critiques of 5e

3. The underdark is to the surface as the sunlight zone is to the abyss.

Creatures down there are as weird (to you, at least) as creatures on the ocean floor.

What's more, their societies and economies are that weird, too.

There's a concept in political geography called a "shatterzone".

That's the technical term for a place into which people from defeated/marginal groups flee.

Shatterzones tend to be poor, culturally diverse, and at most minimally controlled by states

Think Afghanistan, Appalachia, or the Caucasus.