Setting has nothing to do with it. The rules of BitD are built specifically around its intended, limited playstyle. D&D is more "generic" simply because it tries to cover more ground than BitD by a wide margin.
The 5E rules cover more playstyle ground than BitD is all I am saying. That can't be controversial. The whole point of the existence of BitD was do do a single thing really well.
I don't disagree overall (although I think people make too much of 5E being melee focused and "not working" with ranged or guns, but anyway). I just think it is pretty obvious that D&D specifices less about how it is supposed to be played and what that play looks like than BitD. I mean, the...
I think BitD has a significantly more narrow and opinionated design than 5E. I don't think 5E is a generic game, though, just that on the continuum it is more generic than BitD.
Cool.
For anyone (like me) interested, here is a good article on the subject: https://www.science.org/content/article/how-did-ancient-bugs-get-so-big-prevailing-theory-may-be-wrong
Like all great 90s games, it really embraced world building. Those rules were often more complex than they needed to be, but they also had a lot of charm. The math was usually wonky, too. My favorite was Earthdawn.
I walked a player through inputing their character last night (because none of the rest of the group was free). It is a little opaque at times, and not everything is explicit or coded. So take care when building a character and definitely test things before play.
One thing that was new to me but...