Quote Originally Posted by Witty Username View Post
Well, that and elves don't so much get dropped as shift to whatever the popular trend is. Or to be more considerate, elves tend to embody ideas and themes that don't link to physical traits, so they are more malleable generally.

I am not even entirely sure AD&D elves from Faerun are all that similar to 5e elves also from Faerun, let alone other settings.
Actually I think you're onto something. If there's one thing elves have in common in pretty much every setting it's being better than humans. So whenever humans change, elves get updated too to maintain their superior status, thus keeping them relatively fresh.

Even settings that are intended to subvert that trope, like Thedas, largely do so by having most of their elves in some state of decline from... a historical period in which they were unequivocally better, and there are probably holdouts in said setting who maintain the old ways of superiority.