...include a survey for players at the start of the game asking them about some of the major choices they made in the first two BG games...
Maybe I'm wrong, but I suspect there aren't more than a few dozen players who would get anything out of this.
Those games were a long time ago. Plenty of people either never played them or completely forgot their major decisions. I doubt there are many players left who still feel connected to their old characters outside of some passing nostalgia.
If this is in any way true, and I don't believe it is, then it immediately brings back that pesky question of why even bother to call this game BG3?
It's also worth pointing out that BG1->BG2 wasn't exactly seamless. You could import your character and some gear, but the game completely ignored your BG1 playing companions.
In my first game of BG1, the only interaction I had with Minsc was for him to say "My hamster doesn't like you!" when I tried to speak to him. In fact, that particular party ended up with none of Minsc, Dynahir, Imoen, Jaheira or Khalid, yet that was the canonical party they gave you for BG2.
So, in the same spirit, I will be perfectly content to play a new character in BG3 while accepting the canonical state of the world.
