I haven't finished the game yet but I am well into act 3 and know who the Emperor is. So far I am enjoying the guardian more than I did Daisy.
But its hard comparing a few cutscenes from EA to the whole thing. Maybe Daisy would've fallen apart from a story perspective and people who playtested the whole game and not just Act1 made that very clear to Larian.
Never forget that we only had access to a small part but the devs were playing the whole thing over and over.

- Firm believer in Mindflayer supremacy -