You know. I was one of the people who was thinking that throwing barrels around and carrying them in your back pocket was stupid. I have to admit, though, the point about carrying around 10 axes, 8 suits of armor, 20 shortswords, etc. is a good one. You've changed my mind.
That said, it's less important what's realistic, but what's fun. And personally, I thought BG1&2 had a very good balance. Inventory and items to carry were limited, and there were containers to carry smaller things (like valuables to sell, potions or scrolls) and for storing useful items (like armors or weapons) you had bad of carrying. And while BG2 had a lot of items, it didn't have too many items. And there is such thing as too much (looking at you Pathfinder).
Still, modern design seems to be: the more the better, which just makes such limitations either/or annoying, immersion breaking or tedious to manage. Frankly, that's why I found PoE1&2 good - they just ditched inventory all together.
Still, I didn't find BG3 bad. It doesn't have crafting (there is no crafting in DnD 5, right?) so there is less annoying clutter then there was in D:OS2. Crafting in RPGs should die. It's never good.
