This comes down to the fact that a well balanced game with a lot of options is going to have to do some magic tricks to misdirect you from the fact that they're only really balancing a handful of major mechanical effects and a lot of minor mechanical effects.

3.x/PF1 treated balance as a nice to have at best (3.0 intentionally included trap options to be more like mtg) but wanted a lot of freedom.

D&d 4e didn't misdirect you from the balance very well at all. This meant they were able ro give you a ton of well balanced options that didn't feel different enough for many people

5e cut down the options and left some slack on the balance in an attempt to create something that's mostly balanced but doesn't feel samey.

PF2 uses misdirection to try to get good balance with a ton of options without reducing classes down to flavor+role with at will, encounter, and daily powers like 4e

My wife will rant about this a lot lol