In the original games you always knew when you were about to enter a conversation because the character would get a highlight, call out to you and actively move towards you before the direct interaction began. This is missing in its entirety and is the direct cause of much of the "skill check" complaints you see on these forums. You could interrupt this interaction by either running away from said npc before they got too close, successfully stealthing via a check or invisibility, or interrupt it by attacking the character. This kind of interaction is important and is entirely missing!
Setpiece storytelling is preventing them from doing this. In BGIII every interaction is a cutscene and every player response triggers another little cutscene.
For example, if you manage to get past the grove entrance setpiece battle at the beginning of the game, the sequence breaks and characters like Zevlor have undefined cutscene triggers, causing them to stand around and do nothing.
