The World at War has been my preferred version of A&A since I started playing 3.0 in the late 90s.
It really has the right mix of variability with the start in 1939 and differentiation of the powers through different unit costs and ‘special abilities’ like Germany and Japan each getting one ‘blitz’ double-turn per game, elite infantry/mech inf (SS Panzergrenadiers, Soviet Guards, US Armored Infantry), and including ‘specialist units’ like Marines Rangers (four USA inf attack at 2 during amphibious assaults per turn) without being too complex and unwieldy.
Many of the rules in modern A&A first showed up in The World at War long before.
I guess Mike ‘Xeno’ has given up the game and has just been clearing out back stock the past few years. It’s too bad, I had hoped to see an update to 4th edition or a new 5th edition that takes into account some of the new rules in modern A&A past the terrible 2004 edition.