So your issue is that a video game is a video game.
Considering that the most popular mod for Divinity original sin 2 is the one that makes everyone run faster, i dont think that a huge ass world full of nothing so the encounters feel more "subtle" is something that the fans want.
And quite frankly i also dont think that this is what the infinity engine games were like. Look at the immense ammount of enemy packs scattered around icewind dale maps (that miraculously dont notice when someone ten meters away from them is getting killed)
The IE games had more maps.
Smaller, but more maps and you travel between those maps. The scale of the world looks real in the old games, it doesn't in BG3 and there's a few obvious problems in the story because of it (goblins unable to find the grove which is literally 300m further on in a straight line).
And I never said there are too much ennemies... But I think there are too much different cluster on such a little map.
It gives me the feeling that every encounter is carrefully handcrafted as specific "instances" (this is really good but) without thinking about the map/the world as a whole.
Nothing really looks natural... The first part of SaurianDruid's answer is full of "maybe", "they probably"...
But if you consider the timeline of the events nothing make sense.
Again, I never said that gnolls/hyenas shouldn't be in act 1 or in this part of the world...
There are tons of event everwhere on this map and this is cool but the question of the time never had any answer.
If hyenas/gnolls were there for a few days, they would have been in the cave in which the Zetharim are.
If they just enter the area right at the time we come to them, how did they avoid goblins/githyankis/flaming fists/refugees/druids/...? Perhaps another "maybe" ?
This is an easy exemple of how this specific situation could have been more consistent to me : Zentharim on the road attacked by Hyenas coming from the cave.
It wouldn't have led to any questioning : hyenas are living there (whatever it's for a long or a short time) and just attacked lost merchants that are in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Being in the wrong place at the wrong time is okay when it's not about too much NPC/Creatures...
From the Underdark (Forgotten Realms 3rd edition D&D) sourcebook:
Minotaur (listed as a potential character race in an Underdark themed campaign)
"With the exception of the vast region known as the Labyrinth, minotaurs control few realms of their own in the Underdark. Most are found elsewhere, often serving as marauders, mercenaries, and slaves in the great drow and duergar cities. Minotaurs tend to be cruel, dimwitted, and violent, but they are loyal to their comrades and fearless in battle. A minotaur adventurer can travel freely through the domains of most Underdark races, selling his sword to the highest bidder. Minotaurs who turn to good often strive to break the power of slaveholding races and fight furiously for the emancipation of captives."
I didn't know that.
Thanks it's very interresting.
Let's consider those 2 minotaurs are lost and just took a boat to come in this underdark cave because they find cool to stay there doing nothing except waiting for someone to attack.
