I find you're mostly fair.
I don't think you need cut scenes or animations per se to make it appealing. While those can help, gameplay, story and lore should always come first. That said, OS2 is quite mundane in its fantasy. It's all left to gameplay to fix it, but unfortunately, we don't really get a lot of engaging level design or interesting/challenging encounters. The few optional, tough bosses from Reaper's Coast is as far as I can remember.
On the personality of the characters I agree, too.
On the need for the world to evolve, I am on the same page.
Pretty much this...Larian were trying to bite more than they can chew with OS2. And I am only repeating myself saying this.
