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I have played AD&D 2e, D&D 3.0, 3.5, 5e, PF1e, Shadowrun 2e, Mechwarrior 2e, Star Frontiers, Rifts, Star Wars D20, and Stormbringer. I can tell you that in my personal experience, there is always some understandable hesitation when it comes to new editions. As you can see I play, and prefer older editions as they are what I've played most of. Of all the different games I've tried, my least favorite was 5e.
The rule set was way too simplified, and I felt stifled when it came to character customization and development. I actually convinced that group to convert over to PF1e by bringing my books over to the DM's house so he could familiarize himself with them and people actually enjoyed the experience even more. Of all the people in that group, only myself and one other player were experienced. The rest were either brand new, or fairly new to the game.
I have never had a problem explaining the rules to someone from any of the games I've played, in a manner they could understand. To say that games like PF1e are confusing with the level of rules and restrictions they have compared to 5e... I'd have to disagree.
In regards to advantage/disadvantage:
I had a 6th level Cleric with the Trickery Domain in 5e. His core personality trait was he lied about nearly everything. Deception rolls were a regular from him. He only received a +5 bonus to them (at 6th level and being focused in bluffing). Even with advantage, I didn't feel like he was as good a liar as I felt like he could be.
After converting him over to PF1e, he had a +14 to his Bluff skill after all modifiers from Feats, Traits, etc.
(NOTE: He wasn't much in a straight up fight in either rule set. He wasn't designed for that though.)
I'd take that +14 over a second die any day. Especially when there are items/abilities you can get that allow you to reroll failed rolls. hero point systems (which was touched on in PF1e) can be desiged to give you that ability as well.
Spend a hero point to reroll this failed roll. Crit failed? Hero point to make it a fail and not a crit fail, or two hero points to reroll. Failed by 1 point? Hero point to get that 1 point and succeed.
Anyhow, the point I made is a new edition may not be bad, as long as we don't lose the ability to feel like our characters are as truly customized and can grow the way we intend them to.