I think there's an interesting to thing to consider when we discuss the desire for this game to be more in line with 5e RAW. From the beginning of EA, I cannot recall anyone who's had issues with the changes to Rangers, or if they are, they've since accepted it far more than they will have accepted any other changes. That is an object lesson in the fact that people absolutely can get in board with rule changes and those asking for RAW aren't simply purists. Also, people are generally in favour of reactions and lessened surfaces, all moves towards 5e. I think keeping in mind those things is a worthwhile perspective.
Agreed. Baldur's Gate 3 vs Solasta, video-game vs pen & paper, is a bit of a false dichotomy. Most of the criticisms were on the amount of bad/needless homebrew as opposed to there being homebrew at all.
That said, I think the changes Larian did to the Ranger was pretty unimaginative and poor. The most central criticism of the 5e PHB Ranger is having overly situational/RP abilities.
Larian's Natural Explorer version needlessly went into the same trap. Instead of giving specific resistances for instance (which aren't really immersive - a desert dweller doesn't suddenly have skin of asbestos), providing the Ranger access to a spell such as "Absorb Elements" (1st level reaction that gives elemental resistance to any elemental damage for that round) would be a more versatile and elegant option. Cold resistance is a "trap selection" (imbalance that will hurt uninformed players) given how rare such damage is relative to fire or poison.
Larian's Favored Enemy version is even more lackluster for the most part giving access to one skill and a concentration spell that will have to compete with the likes of Hunter's Mark and others. This includes another bad "trap selection" like True Strike (a spell that really would have benefitted from homebrew but didn't get it) which no one should use. Instead they could have made Hunter's Mark for instance a free-cast, not require concentration, or have advantage on concentration checks, given expertise on two skills of their choice, or some such.
