Great feedback! I agree with pretty much all of this, although hopefully some of the mechanical stuff is worked on during EA.
I think the OP's suggestions on UI is a good middle ground on cleaning up the interface. I know I will play this quite a bit after EA, but the messy UI was probably my biggest complaint for DOS2.
As for Halsen being captured, there could be story reasons why that we haven't seen yet. My personal ideas are being captured on purpose to learn more about The Absolute or being surprised by the powers of The Absolute's chosen.
