I love the ground effects. I've been trying to figure out why people hate them so much. If they were removed I think I'd stop playing this game because it'd be so boring.
It's because the game is trying to use Hit points, Armor Class, and Spell Slots from D&D 5e, which is based around the idea of attrition of health and other resources over encounters, and it's also using massive AoE attacks in every battle, unresistable status effects, surface damage, and high ground advantage from D:OS 2, which is based around the idea of being fully healed and fully charged for each encounter.
The two systems clash when used together. If Larian really wants to use AoE's, unresistable status effects, surfaces, and high ground advantage, it also has to change the parts which are designed based on a system which doesn't have those.