I'll write something longer on this at some point but I think it helps to separate the: Social and exploring aspects of BG3-- which feel like D&D and hint at BG2. (although like you I want more of BG2 feel -- which will only happen with a 6 person party and more banters outside of camp). Love the light, sneaking, exploring, environmental manipulation and so on. Combat aspects -- which feel like DOS2 with a D&D mod attached. Yes, 5th is a different system but all versions of D&D share the "how do I make it past the armor" aspect. In BG, NWN, ToEE, Solasta, Pathfinder etc you hit the unhittable by using a class based buff. Cast bless, true strike, get a +1 sword, make sure you are proficient in your weapon and suddenly you can hit.
Once they decided "it works . . .but it's no fun at all" they should have brought in a 5th edition fan to explain the system and how hit something instead of deciding to tweak the system.
And they could make missing more interesting with animations. A battle axe hitting armor but not penetrating, ducking, swords clashing, ducking under a slash. Sure "miss" is boring but jumping over the slash of the blade -- that would be great.
I wouldn't say. You can do the best possible animations but in the end you will most likely end up flustration when you die because you can't hit the enemy for several rounds in a row. The vast majority of people who will buy the game probably have only contact with D&D systems in previous games (or even not). Even if you know the rules (more or less), the need to load due to bad rng can be annoying. In RTwP games this is not a problem but it is a turn based game. There is no DM in the game to help you with a bad RNG and AI will just kill you ruthlessly. You can complain about the changes but it cannot be said that the reason for their introduction is unfounded.
