They just have to tweak their homebrewedto give us an amazing tactical game. (and add 1 party size slot, for many reasons)
Honnestly I don't share your though at all about barrels. I think I saw ennemies using them at a single location, in the entrance of the blighted village. It has no impact on my experience and if being in BG3's guiness book for the "greater explosions category" is something other players like... Why not ?
Fun fact, if believe this screenshot from demo version of the game, we could have had 5 slot for party. Why did they change that?