You clearly haven’t tried 3.5e, IMHO best edition. Class for every occasion. 362 to be exact, however I might be missing some (ex. savage species monster class progression). And you can obviously mix and match classes as long as you meet the requirements.
This feels like apples to oranges. I think the only time I’ve seen people comparing number of classes between the systems has been 5e and PF2e. I’m fairly certain PF1 has more classes than 3.5e, though it’s been too long since I’ve played either.
And to each their own but I much prefer PF2e over 3.5, and much preferred 3.5 over 5e. Didn’t play white enough PF1 to slot it in but it was pretty consistent with 3.5.