I don't get the same sense of adventuring and excitement especially when exploring wilderness areas. In BG1 wilderness the world feels open and vast and the slower "travel music" is wonderful. There's a great dynamic of dense areas and sparse areas just like in real world cities <> wilderness.
BG3 areas all feel too dense, scripted and planned. Larian makes games so dense with awesome they can't breathe if that makes sense. That's a big part of BG1 I miss. The world feeling so vast you can get lost in it, without being empty and boring like open world games.
Like the OP I don't get sucked in BG3 the same way I did with BG1&2. BG3 is too gamey to be as immersive, and the theme park areas are one big part of that. Larian need to learn to make worlds that feel real.
I do agree with the feeling of vastness, curious could it have been do to the fog of war?
