Read on Twitter
For me, though, this is both true and it isn't; I think that your expectations for a game are often out of alignment with reality if you start from D&D. https://twitter.com/rdonoghue/status/1322540751641890822
One of the things I see with the modern generation of heartbreakers (which I've taken to calling "homebrew heartbreakers") is that they re-tread artistic ground that other people have already broken and worked through. It ends up with someone poorly reinventing an existing idea.
I often walk away from heartbreakers thinking "if this person had just read a few more games, this could have been something really, really amazing and special. But because they were bound by D&D's methodology, it feels twenty years old and like a worse version of XYZ game."
Obviously there's an element of taste here because there's always an element of taste in art. But when I read "Fantasy Heartbreakers", the kind of feelings described--of an "almost-great" game whose design assumptions can handicap it--echo my feelings on 5e homebrew.
I also think it's important to add that I'm not mad that people "didn't do the research" or whatever--I really truly think it's unfortunate. I think playing other games has been artistically enriching for me, and I'd like to believe it would be for homebrew designers.
