I think everyone so far has hit on my main worries.
I can't really compare this to DOS 1 or 2. I had never heard of either of them before buying this EA. I bought them solely to see what everyone was talking about when they were making the comparisons between the 2 games. I never even tried DOS 1. I was unable to go deep into DOS 2 as the backstories of the NPC companions being so Gale-ishly overpowered for their introduced level broke it in a way that I simply could not continue beyond 3-5 hours of total gameplay (and about 15 restarts during that time). I think I made it off of the island twice before I just said, "Screw it. I'm done with this $#!t!"...
I fear that those of us who are long time computer RPG players and D&D purists will be left completely out in the cold. I pray that they'll take our critiques to heart and listen to our suggestions on things like party limits, the ability to run without the built in companions, and core rules implementations.
The "We gotta finish this" angle is a REAL concern... We all know that the COVID shutdowns greatly reduced their progress. I just hope that they aren't rushing to play catch-up to meet some deadline that was never disclosed to those of us outside of Larian studios now.
I really enjoy mods. Most of my other games that have been finished once unmodded and are still active for me to jump into whenever I need a fix have 200 (Skyrim) to 400 (XCOM2) mods running on them. They keep games alive for me well beyond the initial thrill and they greatly enhance my gaming experience (even if the load times are murderously slow). Right now, the game is not very mod friendly (go figure, it is still in EA and they kinda need to focus on finishing the actual game first), but I'm really hoping that it will become more mod friendly as time goes by.
I could seriously do without the romance options... like seriously... but if they're including them, then open it up a little and let the thirstier players drink deep and quench that thirst. I get it. I get a little horny too, from time to time. Sometimes it's fun to run through a game just seeing who you can bang and how. I fear that the romance will be there with too many frustrating limitations on who you can romance and how you have to go about it. I'd rather see it scrapped all together than see it remain so constrained.
I fear that the options for which path you can take and what decisions you can make will remain decidedly vanilla, Disneyesque, and watery. If you want to give us an evil option, go to those dark places that no-one likes to talk about and give us true Evil... not just wasteful, stupidly destructive, and rude. I hope that they don't force just a good or evil path either though. Let us pick a few options that are whimsical... funny even. Maybe even throw in a few options that are completely out of left field and will have us players thinking, "Why the hell did they even make that a choice?" It'll keep us on our toes.
I fear that the emphasis on the multiplayer experience will eventually leave those of us who prefer to play solo twisting in the wind.
