I think I've always expected this game to have certain AAA qualities, based on the interviews and the amount of money and people hinted to be working on this game. It's almost the cost of entry to the AAA tier nowadays.
With that said, here are some things I'm impressed by Larian so far (which aren't necessarily AAA traits, just well designed traits):
1) Reactivity in the EA has been top tier so far, considering the game has cutscenes and voiced lines for almost anything (which I'd say is a cool feature of AAA titles). What I like most about BG3's reactivity so far is that it's pretty organic and very much NOT in your face. There is a tendency for CRPGs to make reactivity very structured and systematic (i.e. choices and consequences A, B, and C is very clearly laid out for you). Whereas BG3 does a better job emulating the openness of a Table Top game by being a bit more subtle about this.
2) Quest and Encounter Design - this is one area where I think Larian has done a good job going beyond the normally very rigid and hand-held branching we see in many other RPGs. While strict objectives do exist for quests, for many of them they're designed in a way where you can theoretically take multiple approaches, and interact with various different systems to accomplish your goals. A bit like the Deus Ex "All Roads lead to Rome" approach to quests, which I very much love and haven't seen as much in CRPGs. Hopefully this is kept up in the later acts of the game.
