1.12.2 is my favorite. For me, it marks the last version of Minecraft that was good and didn't have weird additions like the sea update and villager update. Although I did enjoy the 1.16 Nether Update. I found 1.12.2 to be way less laggy than anything beyond, and it was before they entirely revamped the command system. For a person who likes to play with modpacks as well, most mods are supported on 1.12.2 but not beyond.
