[2022] What is the best version of this game?

If you've never played before, Just go in with the default latest version. Try it out, see if you enjoy it.

Point of fact here, OP, is that you have not previously played ANY version. You have no previous experience in the game to 'taint' the experience for you.

Some users are dead set that the devs have 'ruined' the game in various ways; Most of these people have been around for an incredibly long time and decided on their own that the game was done developing at one version or another; Some got incredibly attached to one feature or another, a number of which were temporary to begin with; etc- and that everything since has been the devs ruining the game patch after patch.

And a major problem here is that any longtime user's perceptions on later versions are pre-colored in from their time with the game- For them the game was done in A16, for example, but they never got a fresh untainted look at A17, or A18, or A19; They can't take an unbiased look at it because they are heavily biased to A16. Meanwhile a new user trying out A20.5 for the first time can have a great time and not even take notice of the things that irk those older users.

So.. Just play the latest version. Don't let other users color your perceptions of it; Give it a fair shake, see if you enjoy it as is before you go harrying off trying older versions based on other users' nostalgia.

For sure- There are several pretty major breakpoints in the past, A16, A12, A8 are the go-tos that come up the most. But you'd be doing yourself a disservice to not try the latest version of the game before going back to see where it has been- Because where it's going in the future is not back into the past.