We could go back and forth forever, and still there will be some who don't understand why we don't like the Larian Chain/Group System.

I think it all boils down to control and how user-friendly it is. The chain system takes a good deal of effort to maintain proper control over your companions. It also requires you to stay focused and remember to unchain/chain at the right times. Can you get used to it? Yes... sorta. I mean. I've been playing the game for over 600 hours now and I still sometimes have characters run into poison puddles, or lava, or just plain fire that is burning that they could avoid if they ran two feet to the left, or vine traps, or whatever. It's easy to forget that they aren't smart. They will do things that hurt themselves if you don't carefully make your way through such terrain.

Likewise, I still have issues where companions just stop following me, and I never know it. Interestingly, I just started playing DOS 2, and I find that it happens to me a lot in that game too. I suddenly pause and ask, "Where the flip did Ifan go?"

So, what I mean by "good deal of effort" I mean you have to be constantly watching your companions to make sure they aren't doing something stupid.

Now. Compare that to Pathfinder (either game). There is a button, like BG3, to group all companions together. Click on a portrait, and they are ungrouped. Okay. Super easy. No pull and drag. Want to group a few together? Click on the screan, drag the box until the ones you want are highlighted, and they are now grouped. Super simple. Doesn't take much time. Click on a location. Everyone in the group goes there, avoiding dangerous terrain on the way. They don't get stuck. They don't (usually, and I mean almost never) do stupid things like run into traps or fire, and you can count on them being there together, in a group. It's simple, quick and easy to manage.

There is no grabbing a portrait and dragging it up next to another - UGH, but wait... Lae'zel accidentally connected to Astarion, and I wanted her to connect to my MC - so now I have to pull her portrait really far away to unchain and then try to connect again without connecting the other portraits that are still fairly close together. And OH DANG! I accidentally actually selected her as the character I'm controlling, and as soon as Lae'zel accidentally connected to Astarion, he started running towards her, and now he's triggered enemies between the two. RRRrrrrg! Now combat was triggered before I wanted it to simply because Lae'zel accidentally connected to the wrong person. Stuff like that really sucks.

So, I think when you start to compare the system to other games - Pathfinder, Solasta, etc. - you start to realize just how cumbersome and frustrating the "Toilet Chain" system is. It isn't frustrating all the time, but it CAN be very frustrating when you need it to be not frustrating the most.

Note: When you simply run around with the group all together and you don't separate them or unchain them, the movement mechanics are okay. If they fixed the pathing a little, most of the time the movement mechanics when chained would not be an issue. Especially since they added Group Stealth, it's working fairly well - but again, only when grouped/chained all the time. When you start playing around with grouping people together, that's when it gets frustrating.

You know, I'd rather have something like how some old-school RTWP mass troop games had it (like Battle for Middle Earth). You could set units. Click/drag/highlight or hold Shift and select who you want to be apart of which unit. Then set that unit as Cntl+1 for unit 1 and Cntl+2 for unit 2 (or whatever it was). Something like that would be much easier than the chain system.

And for the love of all that is good and decent, don't make the PCs run towards the selected character when you select them. PLEASE make it so that you have to at least start moving said selected character before the entire group that is selected moves.