Managing surfaces is not fun. Every man and his dog having alchemist's fire and acid arrows etc is not in the spirit of 5e. I am not a purist, but the game needs to feel like a 5e game and not DOS. Surfaces should be used sparingly and dramatically and not as a regular mechanic. Larian needs to start thinking like a DM.
I think one reason Larian likes to use surface effects in their games is precisely because the game literally can't think like a DM. We're fighting against AI routines, not a human DM.
The enemy AI in BG3 is decent for a CRPG -- we see some attempts at flanking, use of high ground, focus firing on the squishy members of the party. But it's still just AI, and not as smart as a human opponent would be. So they throw in environmental effects for the player to fight against as well as the enemies. It ramps up the challenge and makes the game a little harder.
I'd like to see it toned down a bit too, but I think we should consider whether this will make the game even easier than it already is for a skilled player. The enemies aren't going to get any smarter. The game engine apparently isn't designed to throw zerg rushes of lower-level enemies at the player, and nobody likes to see inflated HP for smaller numbers of enemies. If goblins aren't using alchemical fire and acid arrows, does the early part of the game just become an easy cakewalk for the player?
