I both agree and disagree. First off, Baldur's Gate started not in irenecus dungeon but in a kobold hunt in the neeshkal mines. It's important because this is a start of a new adventure and the stakes should reflect it, even if you have some more important things behind the scenes (same as in bg1! Replace mystery assassin with mystery tadpole and you can't ignore the parallels).
The issue is not with the story, world, or characters as far as I can tell. The issue is with how much Larian cares for it. I discussed it at length on this forum, and the more I discuss it the clearer it is to me, that Larian's problem with the story and lore is that they don't particularly care whether it all comes together. This is an issue above the pay grade of the writers. It seems like Larian's lead designers just don't care about how much of the story you get, and only care about allowing you to explore and experiment the game world. If you stumble upon the story it's fine, but if not it doesn't matter to them.
It's the way quests work, the way you can do whatever you want in whatever order you want. All of these things are not wrong per se, provided the developers cares enough about the story to fit it to these design philosophies
