What Larian rolled out is effectively a demo that is updated every so often. It was never advertised as a "live" EA title that is constantly updated and kept boiling so that the studio behind it can keep its head above the water, or as an indie team's first project that they hope to fund this way.
While I agree that the feedback could be more two-directional, given how many things that even people who like how they game is shaping up still want changed, this isn't a "we release the game in chunks as we complete them" approach. We'd probably have Act 2 by now if it were. And it was more or less the same with D:OS2, as well.
I think a lot of people are forgetting this. My sense is that BG3 is a massive and ambitious game (hopefully), and forcing the dev team to go full throttle on what is an updating demo designed to get feedback is counterproductive. The early access gave us a taste of the game, and Larian updates it from time to time to get our opinions on the implementation of certain features. It doesn't seem to be live service. It's more like, "we added this feature. How do you feel about it?" And if we like it, they go after it for the whole game. And if we don't, they tweak the game until we do, and then roll it out for the whole game. I see the early access like an iceberg. Sure, the top might be representative of the whole experience, but most of it lies beneath the surface. Having said that, more two-way communication and response to feedback doesn't hurt anyone (except maybe the people forced to deal with us forum-folk).
This is my thought also. We basically have a ONLY FOR EA bastard version of the real game that they thew to us to get that early $$ and ....some MINOR feedback. My hope is, the REAL game they have at HQ is NOTHING like we currently have for tons of gameplay stuff. EA is just the icing on stuff they need to test out on thousands of players. And to keep the hype and $$ flow going by releasing every few months carrot <updates> lol...
There is no way in hell they do not have a version of the game with ALL the classes, abilities, gameplay mechanics, NPCs and areas already done. This is basically DONE in the planning stage and on the first year or two of dev. What is taking time are the cinematic dialogues and implementing that into the game. BUGS HEAVEN.
