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!
Meh. I think at this point it is pretty much a distinction without a difference in his eyes as is made clear in how he has designed the game. If he were honest it would have been titled "Something XX... inspired by Baldur's Gate, Forgotten Realms, and DnD 5-ish". That would have been cool and clear. Maybe he could have called it "Hairless Fence", a "Remembered Lands" adventure based on the game Tunnels and Trolls.
Joe
