Pretty much all the backlash is in the Steam forums, where some users are in a crusade to whine as loud and often as possible in the hope it will speed up development. Unfortunately for Larian, they seem to live in a parallel universe where Covid wasn't a thing and buying an early access game guarantee a release in the following months.
I see Covid being referred to a lot here and elsewhere in Larian’s defence - how does this explain the length of time EA has taken? Genuine question. I get supply chain issues for manufacturers but in this case?
Personally, I think the EA experience has been poor because firstly there has been almost no acknowledgement of feedback on, or communication relating to, key issues that are raised almost universally (toilet chain, party size, random changes to core rules etc). Secondly, the anchor on which they set timing expectations was one year - sure they gave themselves latitude with the language they used, “about a year” or “at least a year” and I get that - but circa 3 years by the time it releases is underperforming their own benchmark. And they’ve done almost nothing to manage expectations in the interim.
