I personally adore the game to be quite honest. It's not quite my favorite (that honor goes to PoE1), but it's definitely in my top 3. It just hits so many sweet spots for me. I got it at launch since I was a kickstarter backer, and have since played it through three times back to back, and loved every time. I can see a lot of reasons why people might not like it, some being a matter of taste, some being genuine flaws in the game, but in general I think it succeeds more often than it misses. And more than that, I respect that the game, and Kingmaker before it, took some really big swings. They were ambitious and really tried to do some new stuff, WotR especially, and I personally liked the outcomes. I can forgive some of the mistakes and clunkiness knowing that they resulted in an earnest attempt to really try and deepen the genre.
I honestly see Owlcat as one of the major potential evolutions of the genre. One that focuses on polishing the aesthetics and deepening the sense of immersion and choice that's offered. Just seeing how much reactivity the game has to so many things was amazing. I see Larian and Baldurs Gate 3 as another branch, one which can coexist perfectly well. It's a branch that finds a way to bring the genre to the mainstream, using AAA budgets and resources to polish things in a more cinematic direction. Both are valid and I genuinely believe there's a place for both. I think that for all its flaws and genuine failings, WotR really fulfills a lot of its potential, and I hope that by the time it's out of EA, Baldurs Gate 3 does the same, because there's enough in the game currently that I like that it makes me really want to like this game more than I actually currently do.
