I am not concerned with mechanics, nor do I imagine many others sharing my objection are. My concern is substance because the majority of the quests in the grove are substantively lacking.
Apparently you missed a lot. Probably down to "but it feels like an MMO" more than anything else, but, substance:
You have someone in the grove teaching children how to use swords. I guess it's pretty easy to miss, if you're just looking for things to say "see, MMO stuff"? I'd say that "children" counts twice, but that's just me.
Various vendors. However, as I mentioned earlier, this is our hub for this Act, so far anyway. These things are what are always in hubs, including all the way back to Baldur's Gate, with Candlekeep, just to stay in the starter zone. The Friendly Arm Inn map has a couple of vendors, and lots of people around too.
Beregost, also a lot of people, and vendors.
All predating MMOs, and based around concepts from Table Top gaming, that was a thing since the 70s. So far, you're missing the mark with anything like validity. You say they're "substantively lacking" but provide no supporting evidence. Allow me to counter:
If you succeed your dice roll, the thief lives, and you garner support from her parents, if you fail she dies, and they hate you. What's missing for "substance" here? There seems to be a lot of it. Maybe you think that's another MMO mechanic that SP games have been stealing since before MMOs existed? Did you redeem Kahga? I think it's possible, but I haven't done it yet. That seems pretty substantive. Did you kill her? Same thing. Did you save the boy from the harpies? Pretty substantive. So despite your argument, it's just not supported by what's actually there. There is some fluff, such as Alfira. But frankly that's some fun fluff. I actually want more of that. "Because I said so", the argument you're giving with a statement that is not supported by details, doesn't carry a lot of weight, certainly not as much as you seem to believe it should.
