For me, the useful bits appear to be:
- Encounter-long spell durations (frankly, just openly acknowledging an existing state-of-affairs - that they're too much bother to administer!)
- Um... that's it.
(OK, Social Encounters sound intriguing and may turn out useful, too).
The "Points of light in a dark world" setting idea is cool. But that's not Rules. And my campaign seems to be heading that way already, anyway...
Other things we learn - D&D is being changed again, so they can sell more books; and though many of the changes are actually improvements, many more are not. We are reminded that D&D is grotesquely rules-heavy, overly prescriptive (
controlling, not
enabling) and, increasingly and sadly, just a silly kids game.