I think Larian already toned down the surfaces compared to their previous games a lot. They have them built and they are good at building encounters with them, so its reasonable to assume they want them to be an integral part of the game.
And I personally like them, if I was fighting standard goblins all the time then most of the combats would devolve into a hit/miss slog.
But 5e already has lots of spells and abilities that create surfaces/areas that deal damage. Some of them being : Spike growth, Wall of Fire, Wall of Thorns, Fireball, Weird, Hurricane, Hunger of Hadar, Flaming Sphere, Moonbeam, Black Tentacles. The list goes on. Adding more surface effects to every little thing creates chaos, and it takes away some of what makes those spells special.
And standard goblins are supposed to be just that. Standard goblins. They are enemies for low level parties. Their special thing is that they are annoying since they can disengage as a bonus action. Sure you can throw in a a special goblin, alchemist, shaman or boss or so here and there.
But to me the goblins all felt the same in BG3. All of them, including non spellcasters, were hurling fire and acid at me. And spell effects do not feel special since they are replicated with arrows. I didn't have goblin warlocks covering me in darkness, but goblin archers.
Giving everything to everyone, is what makes it bland.
