Aproximately since first few weeks in EA, when it was pointed out to me that no matter how much you try hard to avoid it, NPCs keep using it against you ... so there is no true way to ACTUALLY avoid it ...
This describes ^ the major issue, that it cannot be avoided if you find this change to the D&D RAW unfun and annoying. As I've said before I'm fine with Larian's sense of humor and general goofiness in their DoS games and if this was a DoS game, while I would still find all the shoving people 20-30ft annoying, it would fit the DoS setting. D&D is
not DoS and while humor is great it should be in the story not the game mechanics which clearly and consistently, over many editions, attempts to be grounded in real world physics so as to
highlight magic and class abilities that break that grounding and make them special. If any/all NPCs can casually shove an armored fighter 20-30ft without having to even use an action (which clearly breaks established D&D RAW) it nerfs the special nature of Melee classes and their ability to control the battlefield and protect non-melee classes. The same goes with the other major design choice by Larian: the AOE potion throwing nonsense that gelds special class abilities of Healers essentially giving the special ranged and AOE healing abilities from Clerics to everyone. If every class is special at
everything then no class is special at anything.
There is an unseemly level of hubris at Larian that they believe that it's okay to put their personal spin, one that changes the very nature of D&D combat, on an established IP just because they think it's "kewl". Save those things for your own IPs.
