So, my context here is that I've never played any WoD or CoD games. But a couple of years back I was almost part of a group that was going to play a V5 campaign before it fell through. (I forget the timeline...might even have been December 2019 or thereabouts...) So I bought and have read through the V5 Core Rulebook. I obviously don't have earlier editions to compare it to, but I thought the system itself seemed really elegant. The kind of beautifully simple game design that first attracted me to D&D 5th edition. (Unfortunately having not played V5, I couldn't say whether I would eventually get tired of that simplicity in the same way I got tired of D&D 5e.)

From what I understand, they seem to have changed the metanarrative quite a lot from previous editions. Seemingly for the worse, according to a lot of people who really liked the old lore. Which might mean it's for the better (relative to old WoD) if you preferred CoD?