The way I see it is as follows. The game needs to be released in either in 2022, which is what they are shooting for, or the first half of 2023. If they fail to deliver that, it won't matter what the fanbois think, the company will have lost faith with many of their new customers. Yeah, they will likely keep most of their previous followers, though they will lose some of those as well (don't bother to chime in about what a good fanboi you are, no one cares).
You might hold this opinion, but that doesn't mean that "many of their new customers" think like this. Some will be happy to wait however long for a good BG3 game, and others will have already lost faith. After all, BG3 has already spent over a year in EA, with relatively infrequent content updates or continued hype. At this point I would argue that it doesn't really matter how long BG3 takes to release (within reason), as long as the release itself is both advertised well and is a fun game.
Personally, I'd much prefer a later release with a better game than a somewhat rushed release for 2022/early 2023. If Larian chooses an early release with a mediocre game (which I consider the current version of EA to be, with all its frustrating and/or missing aspects) I'll be very disappointed.
Larian appears to have doubled their customer base with this product. 500,000 new customers minimum who may have little to no experience with this company are waiting on a product that they paid for. It doesn't matter to them if people nitpick about when it was promised, because they are still waiting. Like I said, it won't break Larian if they take 3 or 4 years to finish the game, but I believe it will destroy the trust of many of those 500,000 new customers. Those customers will be less likely to trust Larian products in the future, and will be sure to avoid any entry they put forth in EA. DoS2 sold about 500,000 copies, BG3 is already over a mil. If even half the new customers decide that Larian is less then reputable it can't help but hurt the future of the company in this market. You may believe that customers with no previous experience with this company will be happy to wait however long, but that isn't how you gain the trust of new customers. You're correct in assuming that they have already lost the trust of some, but the number isn't going to get smaller the longer it takes. If I was running a gaming studio, I wouldn't shrug off that many future customers for the sake of art. I would just be concerned that the game was stable and playable with a minimum of bugs, that the Acts were complete and balanced, and that it would avoid the problems that plagued CP2077.
I understand your concern about a rushed release, and I'd hope that this won't be the case. The game has been in production since as early as 2016. It may have been later than that, but no later than 2018. It is being built around a
pre-existing engine, and was ready for EA in 2020. Larian has reputedly never been shy about updating features after release, so even if everything isn't perfect, as long as it is mostly bug free, people will be able to enjoy it. Right now all those new customers are stuck in Act 1 with no signs of moving forward.
