Expectations have more to do with standards. Gaming has advanced quite a lot in some ways over 20+ years. So people do expect modern cRPGs to be less janky than the ones of old. Not as much or more janky. That and practically every type of story has been told in some capacity so RPGs will probably do better with really interesting companion stories. Which... Larian sort of does in a limited capacity. A good step in the right direction.
The standards of what is good have shifted quite a lot over the years but not to anything outlandishly demanding, for the bare minimum at least.
From a writers aspect yeah... if you want some example of early jank in Pathfinder kingmaker just actually think about the alignment options. Or even ending part where you are questioned.
You can be blamed for robbing the armoury and make up excuses about it.
Even if you didn't take anything from the armoury but the key. Yet you have no option to go "I... literally took nothing but the key? Why are you saying I took other stuff?" and instead only have options to rationalize it in a good or bad way. Which is either jank or bad writing.
It's a tiny thing, but that sort of stuff litters P:K in ways both big and small, sometimes to the point of breaking quests if you do them in the wrong order. Despite the game not being clear about the right order. And in fact making no sense with the supposed solution since it has no relation to the problem whatsoever. That sort of stuff drags P:K at least.
PoE1 is just bad writing and game design considering how godawful the opening is though.
