To honor the Spring of Life update I overhauled how biomes generates, not as much as more complex data packs, but still more interesting than vanilla. This makes this version generate different maps compared to the previous ones; the game should make it work with old saves but YMMV.

• first experiments with terrain manipulation: larger mountains surrounded by hills, forming (kind of) mountain ranges i.e. no more lonely peaks popping up here and there (which can still happen occasionally).
• climate zone (biome) size is now roughly only x1.5 of vanilla biomes (much less than the x4 size of Large Biomes) because I found it more fun to explore
• biome borders are now much more interwined, as opposed to vanilla where everything changes suddenly after crossing almost straight lines; if you like lot of different biomes you can find places like that, but if you prefer large biomes that never seem to end you can find them too, uncommonly
• added new biomes:
  • Cherry Woodland, a flowery woodland for cool climates
  • Spruce Forest, a cold thick forest of tall spruces with almost no understory
  • Birch Taiga, a thick forest made of tall birches and spruces
  • Old Growth Snowy Taiga, a snowy version of the giant spruce taiga
  • Old Growth Jungle, a jungle only found in the most extremely hot and humid zones, deep far from the ocean, consisting mostly in giant jungle trees (little to no regular sized trees)
  • Snowy Desert, for the most arid and cold places (previously it was using vanilla Snowy Slopes as a placeholder)
  • Stone Desert, a lifeless equivalent of desert for temperate places (Stony Peaks/Shore were used as placeholders for this)
  • Cold Windwept Plains, for arid plains in cold regions (before Windswept Plains covered both cold and warm zones)
  • Clay Shore, a beach made of clay blocks, for variety and to make clay less needlessly rare
  • Quartz Caves, near-surface caves interely made of Smooth Quartz, forming under hills
  • Basalt Caves, substituting Blackstone Caves because basalt is more realistic, and it nows features lot of lava lakes ("we have volcanos at home" edition)
  • Gravelly River, for arid biomes not warm enough for Desert River nor cold enough for Frozen River
  • Stony Peaks has been substituted by 6 peak biomes using different kind of stones: Andesite Peaks, Granite Peaks, Basalt Peaks, Calcite Peaks, and Terracotta Peaks.
• Deserts are now larger. Desert Dunes are only found inland on moderately hilly terrain with not much water, meaning they won't generate often. Flatter or hillier parts of the same climate zones turns into Badlands, which also act as fringe zones between deserts and more humid and/or cooler areas
• removed the Crystal Caves biome until I find a better way to make it work
• removed Red Sand Shore because oceanside Badlands are basically the same thing
• Now only proper forests and rivers have layers of dirt below grass; swamps now have mud instead, while other biomes will have just stone under a single layer of dirt, for realism but also to reduce unsightly hills and cliffs covered in dirt
• removed big oaks from Oak Pine Forest and made it sparser
• coasts have a more distinctive appearance, with sandy spots and vegetation more clumpy than evenly spaced
• more realistic distribution of flowers; unfortunately most flowers in vanilla Minecraft are from western habitats, so there's little to none available for other
• swamps are now less eager to climb dry lands too high
• reduced surface caves in swamp, river and beach biomes, because they mess up the terrain regions
• Caves at Y=48 and below should be smaller and rarer
• fixed most inconsistencies having cave biomes generating on the surface, which can still happen here and there for variety
• when caves biomes do happen to pop up on the surface, they'll no longer be covered in dirt and grass
• removed most stone and other mineral splotches from aboveground biomes
• Caves and Deep Caves spawn different, thougher mobs than the surface, for variety and especially to make spelunking less boring
• fixed trial chambers not spawning

1.21 update. This version is considered beta because I'm experimenting with new ideas and there's a few things that don't work as intendend, but it's still playable.

• added 4 new beach biomes. 3 are independent from climate zones (based on geology instead i.e. erosion): Basalt Shore, Gravel Shore and Mud Shore. Red Sand Shore can instead be found near steep hot/arid zones
• added cave biome to shake up the underground: a default Caves biome right below the surface so that you can't tell where you are before getting out, with many different stone type variations independent from aboveground biomes, each with its own slightly different ore and monster generation. Then special caves that depend on different variables: Frozen Caves for arctic biomes, Prismarine Caves for ocean biomes, rarely Crystal Caves. Finally a Deep Caves biome for deeper areas, with better ores and no mineshafts.
• added another 2 biomes: Cold Swamp, to fill the missing swamps for cold low-humidity areas; and Frozen Plains, for extremely low temperature zones
• biomes and climate zones are now larger than vanilla but smaller than before, roughly a middle ground between default mode and large biomes mode
• slightly higher mountains and smoother terrain, with weird altitude changes still possible but not that common
• cave openings on the surface are much rarer to prevent that swiss cheese effect, but still not hard to find
• ore distribution is less forgiving: the best materials, including iron, are most often located deep underground, while near the surface only the worst ones are available
• larger beaches
• better distribution of highland biomes
• low terrain is now more likely to generate rivers, swamps and coasts
• brighter water colors for coasts
• Camels have a rare chance to generate in Windswept Plains so that finding them is a little less annoying (and it makes sense for them to spawn in steppe-like places)
• in general, new biomes feature different assortments of mobs, not always the same like vanilla does
• Mansion will now generate also in Pale Gardens and Oak Forests, to make them a little less annoying to find.
• fixed Igloo, Mineshafts, Ruined Portals, Trail Ruins and Trial Chambers not generating in new biomes
• fixed Villages not generating in some new biomes
• fixed Swamps not spawning Slimes and not having closer water fog
• fixed fire not burning out faster in jungles and swamps
• fixed Drowned not spawning more frequently in rivers
• fixed underwater music not playing in coasts and rivers
• fixed water ambient mobs not spawning less frequently in rivers
• fixed Ocean Monuments not checking for land in coasts and rivers
• fixed Snow Golems not melting in savannas
• fixed white Rabbits not spawning in snowy woodlands
• fixed warm and cold Frog variations not spawning in corresponding biomes
• fixed Strongholds not preferring land biomes and not generating in new biomes
• fixed rivers and swamps not being outlined on maps

First release on Modrinth. For people who already knew the old 1.17 version, here's the major changes:

• Complete rewrite of the 1.17 version to the new format used by version 1.20 and above.
• Most old biomes and continents were scrapped in order to make this pack compatible with other worldgen packs that modify the terrain; worlds generate the same as vanilla, only the vegetation changes.
• Added river biomes.