Luanti (Formerly Minetest)

The problem is that they keep updating 15 years old game, on top of old codebase.

Usually, live service game are developed in a way that it codebase can withstand with time and continuous feature addition. Minecraft is not. At least not for 15 years old of continous development.

Almost all newer voxel games are more efficent and flexible, notable example: Vintage Story.

I agree, I'm not a big fan of modern Minecraft. I tried it out again the other day. First world I created spawned me in the middle of the ocean. I swam in one direction for 5 minutes without hitting land. So, I started another world. This plopped me in the middle of the Mesa biome, a biome with NO TREES. Again, I walked for a while to try to find a biome where I could start crafting tools, and didn't reach the end of the Mesa. They clearly don't consider the implications on gameplay when they add new things, just whatever seems cool. I can't think of another reason as to why they would design it in a way that traps you in resourceless biomes at the beginning.

Just a recommendation, but you should try out Better than Adventure!

It's basically an "alternate timeline" Minecraft that attempts to answer the question: What if Minecraft was developed to enrich its sandbox elements rather than turning into an adventure game?

It. Is. Awesome. I find it hard to play official releases now. BtA! is based on Minecraft Beta 1.7.3, the update just before the Adventure Update (which added hunger, sprint, XP, Villages, Endermen, etc.) The project's goal is to work toward a game that's as feature-complete as modern Minecraft, but every new feature connects back to and builds onto the sandbox and previous features. So, it doesn't yet have sprint or villages, but it does have:

-Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter

-256 block world height and larger biomes

-New World Types

-Revamped armor system with resistances to different damage types per set, mix and match for success.

-New Steel resource that's used to craft tools that are stronger, but slower, than Diamond.

-Block called a Trommel that can sift through junk gravel and dirt blocks to yield better resources

-A Guidebook that reveals recipes as you discover components

-Optional icons on signs, for easy labeling -Basket block for automatic item collection (think hopper+chest in one)

-Randomized Mob Skins (ie brown cows, white cows, muddy pigs, zombies with different shirts)

-Mud blocks, which dry in heat but fall like sand when wet.

-Fireflies

-Lanterns (with color variants)

-Wolves fetch items

-Drawable Flags (total design customization)

-Labyrinths to explore

-Snowman hostile mob

-Ice Skates

-Rope

-New Flowers

-Mesh blocks which work as solid surfaces but allow items to pass through

-Ability to carry containers that are full

There's a lot more, like weather effects and painted wooden planks, but I think I've raved about BtA! enough already. If you're fatigued by modern Minecraft, play it. You'll rediscover why you fell in love with Minecraft in the first place.

I'm confused as to what features you hate so much, you said in another comment it went to shit 5 or 6 years ago. This lines up with the village and pillage update, but you don't need to interact with villagers or pillagers at all in the game if you don't want to.

So maybe you hate the busy bees update? That basically just added bees. And isn't necessary to interact with.

So maybe the nether update? Of course to finish the game you so have to go to the nether. They turned it from a desolate wasteland into something more interesting with different biomes, added piglins and hoglins, and bastions. Is this what you hate? I think the nether update was the best update yet and added variety into a previously boring dimension.

The thing about Minecraft is you can play it however you want, you don't have to beat the game, you don't have to do anything you don't want to do. You can play SkyBlock, you can do archaeology, you can play on PvP servers. You can join roleplay servers. And the endless mods make it infinitely customisable.

You say it's slow and bloated but my very outdated PC runs Minecraft at well over 100fps (although i can only say Linux performance is good, idk about windows).

So I'm not sure what you're talking about. The game runs well, doesn't force you to use any features you dont want to use, and gives you full control over how you play.

What does bloated mean in this context?

So play the version you like.

Were you playing Bedrock? I've had the opposite experience on Java; it seems the game runs far more smoothly than it did in years past. And while a lot of content has been added, I don't think it detracts much from the core of the game. (That's very subjective though).

Modded minecraft can be quite entertaining. Vanilla... meh.

Why is content that makes the world alive always referred as bloated? Last i played you can totally play in a way that doesn't interact with the newer content.

No. People have been complaining about the new features since beta times. Example here.

And most complains boil down to "why are vanilla developers focusing on this gimmick feature? Players will play with it for five whole minutes and forget about it. Give us better core gameplay!". I think that it's fair.

That's one of the reasons why I'm interested on the Luanti project. Good Luanti modpacks can do better than that, much like modded Minecraft is often the solution for vanilla shittiness.

I got into Minecraft back in the day because it was a very solitary experience in a Lego playset. As soon as they added villagers and other sentients to the world, it lost that charm for me.

Java is fine, I dont think I play anything newer than 1.12

Who moved my cheese!?

When was peak Minecraft? I haven't played in a decade