I had quite the opposite experience as the OP (at least I think). Sounds like he expected the game to be good and was disappointed. I actually expected to NOT like the game and was wondrously surprised. Being a huge Larian fan from DD, BD, and D2, I was not happy at all to find that D:OS was going to be turn based. I hate turn based. And why change the genre in an existing franchise???!???! (I won't mention Dragon Commander... still haven't brought myself to play that one either :p )
But with their track record of making great games AND offering amazing support, I decided to, finally, get on board by backing D:OS2, which scored me a copy of the EE from 1. over 350 in-game hours later, I've had a ton of fun and am very glad I gave the game a chance. To the OP question, I have honestly asked the question in the past... how is Larian not MORE popular? When I played DD, the first words out of my mouth were, "well that was A LOT better than Diablo... why is this one not so popular?".
I still hope to see the Divinity series return to its roots (or even a new IP in that genre) (more ARPG oriented). While I have a few complaints about D:OS:EE, I would still consider it a very fun and polished game that holds its own amongst AAA titles.
