As to 3.5 edition, I actually feel in mechanics, or as its referred to now, crunch, its an improvement over what came before. better balanced in general, trying to give the players everything they might want, without having to get creative with feats and spells. On the other hand, I still prefer the trailing end of second edition for source material when it comes to running the realms, as the recent batch is less focused on setting details and history and more on how to do stuff.
Wouldnt mind if they did a moderated wiki in the style of the volo's guides to fill in the holes the shift away from complete detailing is creating.