To the OP yes I do miss it. The necessity to investigate the provenance of rare items created a sense of discovery, rather than everything being served on a plate. Why would a Warrior be able to work out what a magical ring does? Only a specialist should be able to identify the abilities of rare items.
Also, the BG3 item descriptions like ‘this sword emanates a dark power’ cannot compare to the lovely anecdotes of items in BG1 & 2, like who owned it and what it was used for.
