For me, personally, it isn't a comparison of the games as a whole, but rather, wanting the bones of the system to function the way that they should. I don't mind some changes here and there but some of the decisions Larian made just felt odd and unnecessary.
I saw a comment about Solasta being soulless, and I couldn't disagree more. It felt like a game created by passionate fans of 5e (with waaay less budget, mind). The way the game runs and treats the system shows they have intimate knowledge of how it should run because they've probably played it.
Now, I respect the hell out of Larian and the work they've put into the game, but the game can feel clunky and unwieldy at times when you know how certain aspects of the system should run. It feels a lot more restrictive where it shouldn't. Even with the new reaction system, some things like Bardic Inspiration slip through the cracks.
Mostly, I think the discourse is happening because Larian has full use of the official license. That is so rare nowadays that it does feel like Larian should be obligated to fulfill certain expectations. For example, I am really happy with what we're getting at launch, but I'll be extremely disappointed if they don't at least add more of the highly requested subclasses as DLC. It feels like the least they could do with post-launch content.
Unfortunately, Swen seems to be signalling that they may not release DLC at all, and leave the rest of the work up to modders, but that's a different discussion.
