I think we need to assess Larian's true strengths and goals in the last ten years. In the last decade we have had:
-Divinity: Dragon Commander (2013), an RPG political simulator with turn-based and real-time strategy features, featuring coop and competitive. Immersive decision-making focused.
-Divinity: Original Sin (2014-2015), an isometric RPG with immersive sim-like features and turn-based combat, along with coop. Emphasizes elemental effects and terrain in combat. Also had high level of interactivity with clutter.
-Divinity: Original Sin 2 (2017-2018), an isometric RPG like the previous game, but with a more serious and focused story and more in-depth characters. More decision-making and immersive sim-like traits, along with new means of traversal. Brought in a degree of non-linearity relative to preceding games. Introduced pre-made Origin Characters with unique storylines.
-Divinity: Fallen Heroes (2019) (Hiatus, unreleased), unknown, likely a mix of DOS2 and Dragon Commander?
-Baldur's Gate 3 (2023), an isometric-lite RPG like DOS2, but with cinematics, more character-driven storytelling and deeper characters, 5e-like ruleset, more dialogue roleplaying, and much more traversal and exploration than preceding games.
Clearly, Larian's area of expertise includes strategy (typically turn-based), RPG (typically in decision-making, but other forms of roleplaying are emerging in characters and customization after DOS2), top-down or mostly top-down view, and immersive sim-like qualities.
Recently, we have seen Larian put a greater emphasis on gameplay and build customization, character-driven storytelling and cinematics, dialogue (and corresponding trees), traversal and exploration, and more serious (deeper? focused?) story (at the expense of Larian quirky humor).
I think asking Larian to throw away strategic elements from their games is a no-go. That's just not the kind of game Larian ought to be making. Larian does not make fast-paced, action-oriented, visceral combat games. And there are A LOT of other studios doing that in the RPG space ANYWAY. Larian tends to slow combat down a little to provoke decision-making from the player, as opposed to fast-paced impulse activity. The "high" level of difficulty in Fort Joy and the various difficulty options helps to cement the idea that you are supposed to think through your moves to some extent (not excessively, but you get the point). I like the direction Larian is taking with story-telling. I like the direction Larian is taking with strategic combat. I like the direction Larian is taking with dialogue, characters, and decision-making. I like the immersive sim. I even like the greater exploration and traversal options that have developed relative to previous games. What I would like to see more of would be something like interwoven consequences of previous decisions and how they affect each other. A lot of our decisions feel like they happen in a vacuum, with one self-contained consequence, and it would be nice if they coalesced in many different world-states to drive home that our approaches in an immersive-sim really do matter at every level. One decision does not a consequence make. Similarly, I would like more sprawling exploration options along with strategic decision-making on how to approach them (as we've seen in some parts of BG3). I wish Larian gave us more of the horror they are hinting at in the Hag's Lair and the Illithid Ship, along with other kinds of horror, like cosmic, psychological, or existential horror (has anyone played Soma?). I like the cinematics and I like that they haven't replaced or altered gameplay (as in some Bioware games or other story-driven "RPGs").
Larian makes strategic, choice-driven RPGs. I don't see that changing anytime soon. I just wish the choices mattered more and had greater context to make us care about them. What would others like to see Larian produce? I think strategic, choice-driven RPG casts quite a large net. But it's not a Skyrim-like (nor should it be?).
