I think there's been one person to mention it so far, but I really like the way loot systems have been streamlined. It's just a chore when you collect 50 swords in one outing, most of which you could care less about. Constantly having to shuffle your massive inventory to stay under the item limit, decide which would sell for the most/least. Ever so slowly you replace your weapons with pretty much equivalent weapons that will help you to kill enemies (or not be killed by enemies) as quickly as your previous equipment used to.
I think one of my favorite variations of this is the dark souls approach. You get new weapons pretty infrequently, and they're usually not strictly better or worse than other weapons. Weapons let you change your playstyle, not just creep up intangible numbers.
Kind of in a similar vein, while I do get a kick out of minmaxing, I like how newer editions of D&D are de-emphasizing sheer numbers, and making each individual feat feel more substantial. Some of the old feats were pretty bullshit and uninteresting, like dodge giving a +1 bonus to a single enemy you declared it against. There's a place for that, but I think that you should generally feel like your character is different after getting a new ability, not just miss 1/10 fewer attacks