I would prefer to see more waypoint portals, to keep it optional. Earlier in the development the characters moved at a faster pace and it looked out of place (in my opinion).
I wouldn't argue if this is the solution we get, but I actually do enjoy traversing an area if it's not uncomfortable to do so. Relying on fast travel tends to chop up carefully-designed zones to disparate NPCs/buildings directly situated around each portal. It works, but it can break flow. It also seems like it would be limited in dungeon areas, where we'd be back to our ambling.
But to be fair, I don't recall a different run speed in alpha. I may have missed that phase, or just had the memory replaced with the current approach. So I at least appreciate that Larian is experimenting with it.
