Haven't read every reply but I wanted to say that the OP is exactly right.
My suspicions at this point is that those of who were looking for a successor to BG2 will be disappointed. Larian seems to wedded to the mechanics that made DOS2 such a success and the CEO is 'slavishly' committed to his vision of 'fun'.
Hope to be proven wrong.
Same here. I quit DOS and DOS2 at mid way because both games were not for me. I bought BG3 in EA because of its name and because it was marketed as being based on 5e, and to (hopefully) be able to stir the game away from DOS2. I'm not too optimistic this will be the case, in part because of the complete lack of engagement from Larian.
