Even if the UI wasn't designed to be scalable, it is scalable if Larian want to do it. I don't know what past discussion on the matter has been, but they should consider the players' testimony of how it affects their game experience. I know some devs just get it into their mind that some certain presentation which suits them is the definitive one, without realizing that maybe another perspective is actually perceiving things beyond their own sight, and is perhaps more valid.
I would say this is one of those times. The UI is so big that it cheapens the whole experience - it feels like I'm playing a soft-padded toddler tutorial.
"Not designed to be" almost invariably means "we think that pushing our accessability-preference on gamers will make them feel the magical experience we hope for" (though it actually does the opposite). And when it doesn't mean this (if it ever doesn't), it still doesn't ever mean anything close to "can't be done" - only that it's preferred not to be done. There is literally no "can't" in coding, and there's always a smart way to make things work.
Maybe I'm petty about it, but it's virtually a game-breaker. It's jarring - the pop-up search-containers really clash with the other senses by being so unnecessarily large, and it even made me wonder if it all was just stand-in assets to be replaced later on.
Without meaning anything in regards to Larian, who I am unfamiliar with, the past industry uses of "wasn't designed to be" have left the phrase as meaning nothing more than developer arrogance, dishonesty, and foolish presumption on what the player experiences. And as I said, there is literally no "can't" in programming - only a "don't really want to". I wish fans wouldn't be made so easily copacetic with issue side-stepping speak. In gaming, just as in politics: An indirect response is a conscious attempt to circumvent an issue.
