As to market appeal, broader considerations definitely play into the design. It doesn’t matter that it is a relatively niche market. In order to make all of this effort worth their time and justify the licensing fees to make a sequel to an old school legendary title (even one as niche as BG), Larian needs to deliver a product that maximizes earnings potential within the limits of their particular target market.
Any business will always want to maximize their earnings. This is obvious. But the key point, what I believe @etonbears was making, is that the target audience/market for classic, old-school cRPGs is very small. By my estimation it is only about 2 million, roughly the sales number for D:OS2. I don't see how Larian can spend a AAA budget on BG3 and be limited to a max sales number that small. Even DA:I, a game that tried to be both classic cRPG and open world action RPG at the same time and probably disappointed both audiences, still managed to bring in 10 million buyers. So I think any AAA RPG needs to be able to do at least that much in sales numbers to be financially viable.
