I feel like people are overstating the prevalence of surfaces in BG3. Yes, there are some, but they usually tend to be small, and minor in their effect. (Unless you are deliberately blowing up barrels, but that's on you.) The surface nonsense is DRAMATICALLY toned down in comparison with DOS 2. I understand that people don't like them, I myself am ambivalent about them (if they were all removed I certainly wouldn't miss them), but some of the complaints about surfaces border on the hyperbolic. They're just not THAT big of an impact on the game.
