Good writeup. I'm working on one myself but giving it more time until I finish the available content and do some more class testing.
My two cents on your points:
Dialog/Companions:
It's a tough needle to thread, getting these rag-tag party members to mesh together dynamically in an appropriate way. I'm sure the complexity behind the companion response option trees is substantial, but so far almost all of the conversation has a strange tone to them. Either a lack of context to the current situation or an unmatched tone- or I feel my response options are all off-base.
Additionally, I want to echo what you're detailing about party usage within dialog options. Why can't my tough-as-nails warrior chime in to the conversation to intimidate an NPC when the conversation starts getting off track? Or even force their way in to intimidate based on the direction the conversation steers? Or starting a dialog with my dim-witted Ranger and mid-way letting the smooth-talking Rogue slide in and use their silver tongue. Maybe I'm a bit off-base here, but that kind of party utilization is the non-combat equivalent of the many varying class abilities in combat.
So far my biggest peeve with the telling of the story is that you immediately get filled up to a 4 character party when you land on the beach. Three minutes after crash landing in an unknown place you're "companions" with 3 or more others. That feels way too fast. It's EA, but I don't even have time to get to know a character for more than a single fight (if that) before they're part of the team. Feels too fast and loose to me after about 5 runs through the first hour of gameplay and far too convenient. I'd be OK being bombarded with characters if they were meant to die permanently or be very difficult to revive, but that's simple as well- and starts leading into combat gripes.
Combat:
CRs are weird. Yeah. But that was also a huge part of the BG 1 and 2 playthrough experience for me. If I had a reload-from-last-save counter in those games, it would be in the hundreds. While that doesn't bode well for everyone's play experience I do feel that more difficult average CR on fights is a well replicated piece of the BG feel. I have yet to hit Underdark though so that point may change my feelings.
Right off the bat, I was surprised (at first very interested) in the dip feature. I thought it strange to have a universal 'dip weapon' feature on every character regardless of weapon- but then after only a few hours of play I understood how many surfaces are thrown at you. It very much feels like Divinity:OS on that front. Surfaces exist in DnD, sure, but the prevalence of them is downright distasteful from what I can tell. I prepared candles in each character's inventory so I could put one on the ground (for free), light it (for free) and dip my weapon in it (for bonus action) for 1-4 extra damage. It feels so cheesy and borderline silly.
And one last reflection on movement: Disengage / Jump... I'd vote for full rework. It doesn't make sense that such a hugely important combat feature like AoO can be circumvented by literally ANYONE, almost for free. Every fight feels like cheese because of it- and if I don't use it I'm ignoring a core part of each round of combat. There's no excuse for a wizard jumping 2 feet away from a warrior then running up a hill. It's a huge flaw in combat's integrity right now.
Oh jeez I wrote too much. Sorry to hijack.
