Your video was good and in general I agree with the points your raised. However, I don’t think the issues are as big a deal as you present.
The Witcher 3 example sets a high bar as it has some of the best cinematics ever done in a cRPG (and even it has plenty of poorly constructed scenes and weak story and dialogue). And your examples of waiting 5 or 10 or 20 minutes for cinematics to play out was very exaggerated. The longest scenes in Baldur’s Gate are no more than a minute or so and usually punctuated with multiple dialogue choices and skill checks to make, which certainly keeps me feeling engaged.
As for having cut scenes for simple NPC dialogue . . . its been pretty well established that the vast majority of players would prefer to see even a bland auto generated cut scene rather than just hear or read the dialogue. For example, this was a major complaint of Dragon Age Inquisition and caused much outcry because they didn’t include cut scenes for normal NPC dialogue.
The market for text only RPGs is very small, voiced RPGs is larger, and full Cinematic RPG’s larger still. No company was going to take a strong brand like Baldur’s Gate and not try to make a game for the largest market possible.
I do expect Larian to improve the cinematics and animations by the time the game is complete. Several cinematics have already been revised and dialogue changes made in just the first couple patches. And I hope they will expand the main PC’s range of expressions which will go a long way. Larian even went so far as to completely rewrite and record the games narration (just before the release of early access) to change it from first person to third person, so they aren’t afraid to make some significant changes if they feel it’s necessary.
As for the writing, again, it’s on par with the better computer games and the actual voice acting is uniformly excellent. The animations are really the only thing holding it back. And I think its too early to judge the companions. They aren’t all here and Larian specifically included just the neutral/evil ones to elicit feedback and see how players reacted to them. I would expect them to make some changes based on feedback.
I agree Baldur’s Gate 3 is most comparable to Dragon Age Origins, which was a very successful and much-loved game. I think it holds up very well and I’m excited with the full game’s potential.
