All CPRGs have to railroad the story, and thus all have an illusion of choice. In BG2 if you decide to not rescue Imoen, the story essentially becomes stuck after some sidequests. You have to go to the isle to progress the story, even if you leave Imoen there. You've got no choice ultimately with Mass Effect, Planescape or KOTR - you have to proceed to various locations just to move the story along, and there is essentially only one direction even if some of the intermediate locations can be in differing order. Your choices affect how the story progresses in the new location - faction and character reactions, but not the story itself. BG3 is the same - first try to remove the tadpole (four different groups can try and one character wants you to try a fifth) and then proceed to the Moonrise Tower (Act 2?) either overland or through the Underdark.
What I most admire in BG3 is the fact that there are so many approaches to solving problems where there are choices. There are two options to whittle down the Goblins without directly murdering any of them (poison and spiders) which still allowing you to walk freely through their camp with the goblins reacting to your choice by commenting on it ("now you'll have to go and find new spiders"). You even have the option to submit to torture which then leads to a goblin trying to emulate you and getting tortured (and injured) themselves. It is possible to lose an eye in one of two operations, and BG3 reacts at least in one situation when you ask a second person to remove your eye after losing it the first time. The game also has interesting racial reactions - playing as drow is very different than playing as an elf when encountering goblins and deep gnomes. So your choice or race definitely provides a level of reactivity I've never seen. The elves in BG2 had no comment when a party of dwarves, halflings and gnomes arrive to save the day...
So overall, as another long time player of CRPGs, I'd say that the branches from decisions are much deeper than what I usually have seen. And I am willing to ride on the railroad, because I do want to see where these decisions take me. Still hoping to see a blast exploding out from a cave if I leave Gale in the Underdark to die...
