Great thread! I'll contribute a little as well
In terms of context my perception is flawed by playing EA over and over again for almost 1000 hours. My first impressions on the story were VERY positive though, but if one considers the replayability aspect - it definately rings a bell that BG3 has some unpleasant aftermath regarding its story, companions and immersion. Examples about the timeline of events and unnatural proximity of areas are both very representative. I have a feeling that storywise the game would be able to sustain players' interest for far less than challenge-wise.
For me, personally, this game's challenge is not enough. But it might be just the EA problem, because after playing through a lot of runs I know a lot of things in advance. I can slither through the whole act without taking a scratch if played conventionally, but luckily the game leaves much space for out of the box thinking in terms of party comp and creative builds. I CAN always recreate artificial challenge by playing truly unique characters in terms of both roleplay and gameplay, which brings us to:
Catharsis!! The game truly lets you to project your imagination into the interactive world by creating interesting characters and roleplaying them as such. The fact I've invested 1000 hours in EA speaks for itself, I think
