^_^ Thanks @Temohjyn and Joe
Certainly not everyone who wants changes is coming at those changes from a strictly "5e or nothing" mindset. Your estimation of the two large umbrella categories of consumers of the game smacks of the largest truth. It still, though, speaks of the truth that there are two fairly disparate consumer audiences of this game, and in its current iteration, Larian is alienating one of those audiences. Maybe the game is targeting the only audience they ever really cared about? Maybe basing the game on 5e setting lore and ignoring a whole bunch of the mechanics was their plan all along, hoping, for no other reason, than to tap into the hugely growing population that is the D&D 5e player base. If that's the case, I'll be more than a little upset, because I feel like there will have definitely been a bait and switch sales tactic undertaken for maximum profit.
I don't think Larian maliciously or greedily decided to work on this game for the D&D brand-money
alone (obviously money is at least partially the reason; they are a company after all). I think they were excited to create their take on an Adventure in the Forgotten Realms. They were always intending to change some mechanics, which by itself isn't a bad thing. And honestly I'm not sure they even really knew what audience they were targetting - when they released BG3 EA, so many players tried to buy it that Steam crashed for a couple hours. I don't think Larian was anywhere near prepared for that level of excitement about BG3.
That said, this EA process - Larian's responsiveness and their decisions - have been fairly disappointing. And I agree that Larian does need to choose (if they haven't already) what genre/tone/seriousness level of game they're going for, or decide what is needed to please both. But until that conclusively happens, I'll keep providing feedback. Some things have been toned down after all, so there's hope!
