I haven't been following Kingmaker 2's development but it's nice to hear it's going well. I started playing the first (and am indeed yet playing, game's massive) way after they fixed all its issues and i think it's honestly as close as we can get to a spiritual successor to BG2.
Well it’s not really Kingmaker 2, it’s Wrath of the Righteous, but I’m sure you already knew that. The two games aren’t really connected other than taking place a few months after Kingmaker’s end in the timeline.
The common perception among beta testers is that it’s shaping out to be better than Kingmaker in almost every way, like it’s very obvious the devs learned from all of their design mistakes from the first game. One of which was the lack of unique gear for weapon types that the companions didn’t specialize in, so there’s way more gear for less used weapons this time around, some of which are good enough to make whole builds around PoE2-style. Also a lot more accessories besides the usual rings of protection and natural armor amulets. The only common major complaint is the crusade system, which is probably the most incomplete aspect of the game right now.
Being in the beta test myself, the pacing is really different from Kingmaker. There’s barely any downtime in the story, and there really isn’t a central hub area like in Kingmaker either. It’s a big journey throughout. Chapter 4 in particular comes way out of left field and is unlike anything I’ve seen in any recent RPG in general, and I would hope the city of Baldur’s Gate could have a similar scale once we get there in BG3.
