Why lock *all* this content to the camp at all?
Making the camp the centre of companion interactions makes perfect sense from purely narrative point of view: downtime when characters relax after a day of adventuring is a very natural place for place party interactions. It also integrates resting with other aspects of game, and Larian might be worried how their existing audience will react to a new system that is long rest. You also avoid a very awkward thing from BG2 where conversations would trigger at the most inopportune of places and moments.
There is also a production advantage, as with pre-set enviroment devs can craft cinematics for those interactions - try to make those trigger anywhere on the map and you don't have a propt nor "stage" to work with, not to mention having to deal with objects obstructing the camera and all the other stuff you get to see when you try to engage in conversation with roaming NPCs. Really, they are just doing the same thing as other modern cinematic heavy RPGs are doing.
Unfortunately, Long Rest in BG3 isn't quite like, lets say Normandy in Mass Effects, which acts as a hub from which player accesses locations and missions - and amount of visits to the camp in BG3 could vary between players greatly.
Edit. As we talk about QoL UI changes to enhance conversations: The yellow exclamation point over characters when they have special conversation are a hit or miss for me. Usually they are fine, but with a bright background (like in the Druid Grove) it happens for me to miss those - and then they pop into view once I initiate a move order, but then it's too late and they dissapear. I would appreciate something more visible. A stronger outline perhaps? A sound que? Perhaps a companion saying "can we chat for a moment?"
