The ONLY reason people I've known don't pick feats:
1. They are lazy and just want to do the easy thing and go with ASI. No thinking involved. Easy and done.
2. It makes sense to. Either they are at 15 and 17 with certain attributes and they want them to be 16 and 18, or something similar. Serious buff to states especially if two Abilities are getting a bump like this.
3. They don't even know what feats are out there, and they're not sure there are any that will actually fit their character. This kinda goes along with 1. People typically don't bother to see what's being offered because it's too much work, so they don't want to look into it and see what there is to offer that could make their character unique and more interesting.
4. Fun and interesting feats aren't being offered. Depending on the source materials you are working with, you may only have a handful of boring feats that don't appeal to the players.
So it all really boils down to two things: 1. It's easier to ASI or there aren't fun feats being offered.
I think both of these apply to BG3 right now. There are only a few feats that really appeal at all, and even those aren't THAT appealing.
And why?
Many are stripped of their value by homebrew rules. So, here again, we're back to the homebrew devaluing things. Again, one of the coolest things about Shield Mastery is the ability to push people as a Bonus Action with your shield. You gain other buffs, but pushing via Bonus Action is part of what makes it appealing. Suddenly, you can attack and shove in the same turn.
But BG3 makes Shove a Bonus Action already, so they stripped it of one of its best abilities and made it unappealing at all.
And what about feats like Crossbow Expert? Not in the game. Why? Because the feat allows you to ignore loading of crossbows - not in the game so makes the feat pointless - and if you are within 5 feet of a hostile creature it doesn't impose a disadvantage on your ranged attack roll. Oh! That might be cool, but honestly, would you use it? You can do two weapon fighting with light weapons and probably do more damage anyway. The only other thing it does is when you use an Attack action and attack with a one handed weapon, you can use a bonus action to attack with a hand crossbow you are holding. So, swing with sword and shoot with hand crossbow. Kinda cool, but does it apply to how a hand crossbow is used in BG3 already? Meh. Not really. I mean. Kinda maybe.
But still, this feat doesn't exist, which is a really cool feat for those who love crossbows, because most of the mechanics are already stripped from it in BG3. Thus, the feat is boring and pointless.
Over and over I'm beating a dead horse here, but I'm trying to point out each time Larian's ignoring the basic rules negates the value of things in D&D 5e. We wouldn't be having this conversation if there wasn't a bunch of homebrew that negates the value of a lot of feats and special abilities. People would want to pick more feats because they would provide players with a more tantalizing appeal.
Oh, and here's one that goes right along with Barbarian. Instead of making everyone able to pick up and throw things well and so forth if they have enough Strength, why not Tavern Brawler at Level 4. Suddenly, Tavern Brawler feat, if they included it, would be SO much more valuable.
Why? Because in order to throw well, you'd need this feat. It increases either Strength or Constitution by 1, it makes you proficient with both improvised weapons and unarmed strikes - both of which you should need to Grapple and Throw - your unarmed strikes would do 1d4 damage instead of 1d3, And when you hit a creature with an unarmed strike or an improvised weapon on your turn, you can use a bonus action to attempt to grapple the target. A grapple check is a Strength (Athletics) check contested by the target's Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acorbatics) check.
So, THIS is what you should need to Throw enemies. Then you wouldn't have everyone throwing, including enemies, and it would make taking a feat like this enticing and special. Suddenly, more people would want to take Tavern Brawler because they'd like the idea of their fighter or barbarian being able to use improvised weapons well and unarmed strikes and picking up and throwing and so forth.
But, again, they make it so everyone can do it, so having a feat for it is really pointless.
THAT, my friends, is why feats in BG3 are lame and unappealing and why many are saying they just ASI. There's almost nothing appealing about feats in this game.
