A printed manual would certainly make potty time more interesting.

The thing with the BG manuals is that they also basically spelled out the current D&D rule set at the time also, which you kind of needed if you were going to play BG. I'm curious this day and age how many will try to play BG3 who have also never played D&D. I imagine it will be quite a few.

If they can incorporate the 'rules' into the game somehow that's fine as long as it's user friendly and all that. But a printed manual would be a very nice incentive for a collectors edition IMO, and I would certainly get it.