Fair point. Part of it could be I’m younger and a majority of my experience is in 5e. I’ve been branching out lately though, and while I enjoyed PBTA, perhaps I’ll find something that hits that niche better

Having run Root by Magpie Games a few times, I’ve really enjoyed how cinematic it feels. DND combat can be very fun and tactical, but it can also drag as players have to use turns to prepare attacks and then go sit in the back of the line for 10 minutes. PBTA on the other hand always felt quick and quirky with the different playbook abilities. But it’s of course not going to be as deep as a crunchy game, and therefore I dont think it suits OPs needs

The book even suggest to do this. Pick 4 factions, set up the board, then play 2 rounds. Build the campaign map off of that. I’ve ran oneshots of Root and so I didn’t really care to keep track of the entire forest, but if I ran a campaign, I definitely would.