The battlefields in BD were entirely optional; I only visited for the merchants.
Lots of people wanted respawning opponents after Divine Divinity, optional areas and the ability to keep playing after the end of the main plot. It wasn't a majority, but apparently enough to justify an experiment... or it was a requirement from the publisher.
I'm typically one of those people, so I guess I can't complain too much about their existence, then! And at least one set of battlegrounds provided one of the rare examples of pleasant greenness in the game. Based on what you've said below I guess I'm surprised they're there at all, let alone the size they are.
The DD wastelands were cut back quite a bit from the original plan, due to the publisher setting the release date, leaving it almost entirely hack and slash.
With BD, the final act was done first, so this would not happen again, but unfortunately that put limits on the design of the rest of the game, since changing too much or introducing new mechanics could invalidate the work already completed.
That's a bit sad. I wonder how many games have been less than they could've been because the publisher wanted them out earning money before they were ready...
I'll hazard a guess; nearly all. From what I can tell, development companies get the short end of the stick. For example, a game released at somewhat the same time as these, Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, was released with a half-finished engine and was rushed so badly that it was too buggy to play. One official patch was made but the development company, Troika, made almost nothing from it and went under. It wasn't until user patches were made that the game became playable. Then there's Red Baron 3D - another unplayable gem as released (for those who like combat simulation, anyway). So many more!
As far as the BFs being optional, it's been done (at least by Raze) so possible (avoiding them) but after I rushed through the wastelands in DD and was unprepared for the final bosses, I was afraid not to go through them.
It's a real shame the wastelands were not fully developed too - I can only wonder what Larian would have done with them had the time been granted.
