The number inflation
Armor Class in Basic and OD&D goes from 9 to 2, and fits in neatly with the math from a d20 roll. The only way to gain armor was to buy and equip your character from a small selection of armors and shields. In AD&D, armor class goes from 10 to -10, and your character's dexterity bonus is added to your it, and certain classes like the Paladin get special boosts to armor class. The THAC0 of monsters and PCs rises quickly as well, while AC itself doesn't change from its initial value. This means that, to keep up the player's protection from damage, by the high levels they need armors +3 and shields +2, and other such nonsense.
This sort of AC number inflation, and the irregular way in which it rises, eventually led to the 3e notion of constantly increasing stat bonuses and 4e's level scaled AC. In AD&D's AC system, I see the beginnings of the trend that eventually led D&D to the numbers game that it now is.
I understand that, at the time, AC and to-hit inflation seemed like a good idea, or maybe it was an unintended consequence of how early D&D was played, once the PCs started getting their hands on magic swords and armor. IMO, Chainmail had the best system for magic weapons - a magicked weapon granted at most a +1 bonus to a roll of 2d6. "Double magic" weapons and "Triple magic" were almost unheard of.
In modern D&D, if players don't have +5 weapons by the time they're out of the early levels, they scream blood. To me, this cheapens the nature of magic weapons, and turns them into simple stat bonuses. Its the same silliness that video games have, when by the time your character hits lvl 100 he's carrying a rare legendary masterwork sword of vampiric fire +10.
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