From what I played of BG1, I would say that actually handled items a little bit better. You were very limited in what items you could carry, moreso than in BG3. So you actually had to make interesting choices about what you would or wouldn't keep in your inventory. Those choices aren't present in BG3. You end up just accumulating stuff that you'll either forget about, keep so you can use later by navigating the tedious inventory menus, or sell via a tedious merchant system.
Yes, BG1&2 small inventory space made it more deliberate, but more importantly BG3 is very selective with lootable objects, so there is limited amount of things to click, and in general things are worth clicking - comes with BG1&2 bing 2d games with barrels and crates being part of the background, rather than spawned in objects. Still, for all my dislike of Enhanced Editions, I do appreciate the "loot area" feature - I am fine with saying to the DM "now I loot the bodies", rather than having to click one by one on each.
And for the record, I don't think boxes are a big issue in BG3, though understably it is annoying to some. Back in D:OS2 I wished for highlight button showcasing important objects only, so I am perfectly satisfied with BG3 filtering important stuff for me.
