I think this is so incredibly silly, Larian did it on purpose. Trolling people calling the game <DOS3> lol. I mean common, the dig animations, the shovel, the oversized chests, the locations...everything about it screams DOS Rivellon silliness.
While I think you're correct in that assumption, I don't think they should keep it that way.
It just doesn't fit in BG3, especially not with those ridiculously large chests (and some locations). I like the basic premise of having buried treasure our party can find and dig up, but it needs to make sense.
