Maybe I'm too much into meta-gaming myself, but there are some encounters that really frustrate me in this department. The chief of which is the dudes in front of the chapel. I can persuade or intimidate them off for companion approval, or I can fight them for xp and loot. I want to milk every drop of xp I can before the Grove gate fight, and not having xp awarded for skill use or role playing my alignment is annoying
But it's a really minor frustration, and doesn't affect my enjoyment of the game any more than the toilet chain does, it's just something I've learned to line with...
Which as I write that, I realize it's exactly OP's point. Yes, Larian are encouraging killing over problem solving on other ways, but only for those who are valuing in-game rewards over their personal satisfaction in role playing
you should get XP equal to the encounter imo, but lose out on the items because you avoided the danger of fighting them. If you want the XP AND the items, then you take the added risk of dying when you fight them. That said, getting no XP for making them go away is awful I agree, that shouldn't work like that.
Indeed, that's how I think it should work.
In table-top I tend to agree with that stance since it doesn't really make a difference one way or another when you are playing with friends.
However in a CRPG effort and time spent need to be considered when calculating rewards. If I get the same reward for rolling 2 skill checks in one minute as I do for fighting 8 baddies in a 45 minute long battle, I'd certainly be disappointed.
There could be the argument of, the reward for fights is money and better gear, not necessarily more xp. I'd be open to that with the caveat that they need to fix the post mission massacre. I think the fix for that is to flag all NPCs as worth 0xp after their quest(s) are complete.
