Thanks for putting together this little list. Some points have been discussed a lot, some sound newer to me. Some points are fairly minor and easy to ignore, some are much bigger problems. But overall I agree with most of the diagnostic.
Etruscan kind of said it all already, but yeah, ... Larian probably never cared much for immersion in the first place. (In the same way that combat rules and balance are not high on their list of priorities either. And same for UI/playability, however fundamental this aspect of a video game is.)
Which is very sad, because story and immersion are important to me, in a 100-hour CRPG.
I think fundamentally immersion was sacrificed on the altar of player convenience, their interpretation of 'fun' and perhaps also a desire to reach a more casual audience who are maybe put off by the notion of learning a new and deep rule set.
I don't think more immersion would necessarily lead to more difficult or deeper rules. It seems to be that what is mostly needed is some more creative thinking and more consistent world building.
I agree that making the game more immersive does not have to involve additional rules.
But regarding creative thinking and ideas, I kind of disagree, or I wouldn't formulate the situation this way. I think Larian has more than enough writers and designers that they could have very easily imagined solutions*. The various immersion issue don't strike me as being hard, requiring breakthrough ideas and intense work. The problem is mostly just that they probably don't care much and have no will to work too much on this.
(* : In fact some immersion mistakes, like in-world Lae'zel mentioning the video-game-only party size limit, or in-world Gale mentioning the players-only teleportation portals, only require removal. No brainstorming, new ideas, and creativity required.)
