Personally, i find it very disappointing and mildly interesting how a fair number of people think about these kinds of measures as "punishments" or "penalties". Which they are not.
I think it is a by-product of Early Access, other games have the same issue. You let people play the game and when you start making changes that increase difficulty, things like "Nerf" start to appear, what was once easier is now harder. It's unpopular in a general sense. I would say an early take away from EA is to come out tight with rules and if needed loosen. In DOS's case there are plenty of things to loosen (DOT) and a few things to tighten (Specialization) so it should be fairly smooth.
I'm cool with whatever makes sense, I assume we are just being Imaginary Jr. Designer in posts like this, sure some food for thought for Larian. But it would be a little scary to think they aren't on top of it and have a successful plan. It already is a little off for them not having this nailed down quite a while back, bit it is what it is, looks like it will come out ok.
This proposal here has merit, I feel there are a few ways to pull this off.
