Well, actually to my amazement, BG1 has better party UI than BG3. And that game is ancient.
The BG3 style chained party UI could be be a stand-alone minigame. Just not in BG3. Using it feels like a full time job. Has no pros at all, just cons.
Let's compare with BG1 party UI:
Character select by clicking on portrait: In BG1 one single click is enough vs. in BG3 need to click it multiple times until reacts (most of the times), it's like the mouse cursor struggles to detect the portrait
Character order in party (both in UI and formation): in BG1 drag portraits easily, there will stay forever vs. in BG3 every resting at camp resets it to some weird default (can't even specify which to be that default, same with inventory screens)
Select multiple characters: in BG1 click and drag above just 3 out of 6 (or any number) and issue orders to move or attack or anything and works instantly vs. BG3, where you need to unchain them, create new chained sub-groups
Give orders just to a single character, any of them: in BG1 click portrait, give orders, done, nobody follows the selected character vs. BG3 where you must unchain that character, otherwise the rest will start following it
BG1 can select whole party with a single key and even move them in formations vs. BG3 where all must be chained to do it, then unchain again to issue orders to each, without breaking the others
Welcome to 2020 where we have nice graphics but the ancient knowledge of party UI management was lost.
