I'm consciously reminding myself that I didn't ask this question to argue or convince you of anything, because I don't think you're wrong. I'm interested in broadening my perspectives and understanding my own opinions about these games. I think that personally, with a lot of locations in WotR in particular (It's been years since I played kingmaker) just exploring an area and seeing the story crafted for it is enough of a point for me. Like there's a small village that's not really relevant to any quest or story, it doesn't even have a side quest attatched to it. But it has a story of its own. It's a ruined town that's plagued by undead. Undead that I interpret as being the corpses of the townsfolk. So yeah, the only thing to do there is fight undead, but seeing the place itself is to me a reward on its own because it shows a level of care and consideration for world and setting, it helps get across just what kind of place the worldwound is. Pathfinder isn't the best example of this (I would say that's the pillars of eternity games) but still, I like that it's only point is to exist, that it's not inherently relevant to me and to the plot.
Meanwhile with the ogre encounter, I think that for all the options for how to tackle them, it feels...less impressive fundamentally. You could argue that the point of killing the flaming horse or the demons is to remove threats to your barony/the crusade, same as removing the ogres or the matriarch. And the Spider Matriarch is the same. All the methods you list out, to me still just feel like combat. I don't know about any gem there, and if you hadn't told me about it I'd probably just have avoided the spider in perpetuity because tome it's all just a fight to me, and a tough one that I really hate doing from the one time I got caught up in it. No matter how many ways you can approach the fight, it's still a fight. They don't seem like different solutions to me, anymore than positioning myself in different spots on the map in Pathfinder are different solutions. As for killing a thing that's plaguing the local area...no one's left there. Everyone except the druids are dead or just gone and we don't even really know why.
Here's an example of what I'm talking about:
BG3. Goblin encounter in Blighted Village. You enter. Talk to the goblin captain/leader. There are multiple ways the encounter can go. I can convince them I'm friendly (especially if I'm a drow). Thus, no fight at all. I can sneak into the village and avoid them entirely. I can sneak in and work my way up onto one of the buildings and fight them with height +2. I can cast a Disguise Self spell and become a drow or something prior to entering and trick them into thinking I'm friendly. I can just waltz right in and confront them and fight them. It isn't just a fight. It's a potential fight, but there are many more ways to handle the situation. You don't HAVE to fight, and that's the point. While exploring BG3 map, you encounter many potential enemies, but with each encounter there are many options besides just straight forward fighting. Besides having multiple strategies that you can use in combat - such as surfaces, throwing, shoving, blowing up environment things and causing collapses and such - it isn't just a hack/slash game. There's a lot more actual roleplaying involved that COULD result in lots of fighting if that's your play style. Nevertheless, Larian HAS done a good job at not making it all about a single style of fighting.
Pathfinder. Uses items and potions and scrolls and such WAY better, but it's pretty much all combat. Every encounter is, for the most part, combat. You enter this map and you fight your way through to the end. The variety in Pathfinder games, however, has to do with the varied items you have at your disposal. A ring of summoning to summon a specific kind of creature that can really come in handy, potions of various kinds that REALLY make or break certain battles, a Dino Animal Companion Triceratops that you can summon and add to your party, etc. So Pathfinder does better at making a more varied strategy with items and potions and scrolls and such while in combat while BG3 does better at actually having more roleplaying options during encounters that aren't all necessarily fighting.
