From what I understand (without having followed DnD editions much), 5E changed quite a lot the balance between healing, buffing, and other things a Cleric can do. The fact that long rest restores HP means healing spells are only for use in combat, where it is far from always being a good choice. And the Concentration system is precisely there to prevent the arms race and multiple layers of buffs. But the points I wanted to make didn't concern the relative use of buff between older editions and 5E-BG3.
One point was about the relative use of buffs between 5E and BG3. BG3 is using 5E. It's a homebrew, but the difference of player behaviour is stark, and it's not clear it's because the 5E players and BG3 players have different inclinations. It sounds more reasonable to think that the difference comes, in good part, from the vastly different balance that BG3 produces.
Another was on how the interview goes from "our data shows that buffs aren't much used" to "buffs are just plain boring, cRPG players only want fireworks and damage" without any discussion about why, exactly, buffs aren't used much. Which I find really problematic.
Another was on how Larian seems to think that if a spell isn't used as much as expected, it's a problem. And perhaps one that can be solved by over-powering said spell until it sees more use.
