Making 5e D&D More Appealing to Run

I recently made a video about hacking D&D to make it your own, and a lot of people seemed to feel where I was coming from with what I was saying. To provide a little more guidance on how I'd handle this and how I'd present it to a group, I thought I'd flesh this out for a future game I plan to run.

First, I'd lay out exactly what I'm hoping to do. If you can sell them on a concept, the particulars will often follow with no pushback. If they like the concept and you can explain how every change you've made thereafter is to strengthen the concept, they'll probably jive with it. Here's my concept.

We're going to play a low-magic, low-fantasy game kind of like a middle ground between Forgotten Realms and Westeros. The PCs will be retainers to an up-and-coming Lord in the Kingdom who is vying for the throne through the affinity of the heirless King. Demihumans are rare, and nonhumans are enemies. The game will be very deadly and low powered, but there will be a strong focus on the PCs handling political maneuvering as well as serving as an elite unit. Players should be prepared to be on their toes, staying in the headspace of their character and portraying them faithfully.

The next thing to do is to start eliminating things you don't want. In this case, it's easier to say what IS allowed rather than what isn't.

Playable Races: Human (Preferred), Halfling, Dwarf, Elf.

Playable Classes & Subclasses: Fighter (Champion, Battlemaster, Cavalier), Cleric (Life, Light, Nature), Wizard (PHB options), Rogue (Assassin, Thief, Inquisitive, Mastermind, Scout), Barbarian (Berserker), Paladin (Devotion), Ranger (Hunter, Beast master).

No multiclassing or feats. Custom backgrounds provided.

The entire point of this is to show that the classes, subclasses, and race options all reflect the scope of the world they'll be playing in. They understand that they're operating in a humanocentric pseudo medieval world, and operating within the bounds of a society with expectations. They can correctly infer that being "outlandish" will be a negative trait that they will have to subdue when they are in society's watchful gaze. Next, we introduce custom rules.

Passive skills don't exist. XP will be very minor but will encompass everything that you do in service of your Lord. PCs will start with one full Hit Die of HP plus an extra that is rolled.  (Ex: a Level 1 Wizard will start with 6+d6+CON modifier HP)

Stats will all be rolled as 6+d12, providing a spread between 7 and 18 with an average of 13, but with much less uniformity among stats. Some characters will be more fortunate than others, and very likely, all will have some clear weaknesses and strengths.

Cantrips aren't actually cantrips. They're specific wands, such as a Firebolt wand, a Mage Hand wand, etc. Using a cantrip wand consumes a charge. Your wand can have up to your INT modifier in charges, and it takes a full hour to recharge one wand.

Healing Word does not exist. Anytime you fall to 0 HP, you receive one level of exhaustion in addition to the death saving throw process.

Levels will cap at 7.

After all of this, if the players are still interested, it's time to go deep into introducing the starting scenario, going through a group character creation process, and getting all the ducks in a row for the first session.

What Fifth Edition does well is it has a fairly simple structure that is primarily complicated through adding more options. By eliminating options, you control the complexity and eliminate a flavorless, kitchen sink setting. You also turn the players'focuses from defining their character through mechanics to defining their character through actions.

The higher survivability is modifiable by a very simple fix. Exhaustion makes the up/down/up effect not go unpunished, and the lack of Healing Word means that players need to commit to either quickly finishing the battle or keeping their friend alive. Extra HP is given to offset the fact that leveling will be an incredibly slow process and that while the game is meant to be gritty, it's not intended to be a slaughter for months of first level play.

Further, the 5e player base seems to have a lot who crave an engaging, deep world, while having characters they can experience exhilarating encounters that produce a good, cohesive narrative. I feel that this would check all of these boxes while preventing me from getting bored from a lack of tension in the game.

Let me know what you all think.