i've got quite a few nominations
1.14/15 - Village and pillage/Bugs and bees
1.14 to me was the last good update to me from a gameplay perspective. one massive update overhauling the early game and villager mechanics. i spent hours in 2019 purely because of this update and how groundbreaking it was gameplay wise. im including 1.15 in this as it was a necessary evil and if i was to play this update i'd do it on 1.15. just adds bees too which is neat.
i wasn't into the nether update much but honourable mention because blackstone and last full on update
1.12 - something something world of colour update
concrete and the last version of minecraft where forge was good. it feels more like a base now these days for shit and the last update i feel that didn't have a strong theme to it.
honourable mention for modding goes to 1.7.10 btw. that was my first java minecraft version.
1.8 the boundiful update??? cant spell it
most people would mention this because classic combat. while im used to 1.9 combat and understood why it changed 1.8 was the last update i consider to be classic. i rarely touch it now but occasionally a friend of mine prefers this version because it was the last notch version
20w14infinite
best april fools update fuck you.
i am half tired and probably missed a ton of detail lol