The thing about D&D is that you can generally make it work for a wide swath of players. At the table I've been playing at for years, we have people who are in it for the gameplay crunch, people who are in it for roleplaying, and people who are in it to socialize. I enjoy roleplaying and storytelling to the point that I write in-character diaries and letters, but I also enjoy building a mechanically fun character and being challenged with combat. I could probably enjoy a system more focused on either one of those, but I don't think all of the people I play with would be on board.

And I 100% agree about rules-light systems being possibly harder for newcomers. I've seen it again and again.