Well, I do have quite the opposite experience on that matter yes, but I also know I won't be able to convince you to change your view. Of course, if you do the math and sum XP value for every enemy in a specific encounter vs XP gained, by closing the encounter peacefully, you'll probably get a bit more XP on combat, but the difference is really marginal and won't make your character progress gimped. I'm playing good character and in 90%+ cases there is an option to persuade or cheat your way out of combat, which definitely doesn't feel interior.
Out of curiosity, how would you imagine getting enemies loot after solving things peacefully? That they could just drop their gear for you to grab it? Or offer a reward for the fact, that you mercifully spared their lives? I mean, not getting their loot is not a bad design, it's the natural outcome of not killing your foes. It would have been the same in any other games, BG3 is not unique in that.
What I personally really like in BG3 is that each option results in an *interesting* outcome, even if doesn't necessarily mean getting more XP or better loot. But the narrative outcome (both immediate or longstanding) is always impacting. This is seriously one of the very few games, where I don't question my choices. I genuinely believe thinking too much about possible rewards for particular approach doesn't make sense in BG3. There is *a ton* of gear to loot in this game, and missing one or more items doesn't change a thing. You won't find legendary items an a random mob or group leader anyway.
Well, you seem to be emphasizing the rewards point even though that was my third and last point, the least important of my points to me. So, forget about the rewards. The real issue is that many people have categorically confirmed that certain options, choices, and paths, especially for *good* story/quest outcomes, get closed off at later points in the game when you chose to avoid combat or avoid killing someone earlier in the game. And people have specifically said this resulted in their feeling frustrated that the decision-point at which they made that earlier choice was not one in which they could possibly have reasonably anticipated the later outcome, and therefore the situation has left them very unhappy.
Btw, as far as rewards go, it is possible for a game to give material rewards to players for having chosen an option that avoided combat. It doesn't have to be the same rewards you would've received from engaging in combat. That's why I very specifically said "equivalent" rewards and not "same" rewards. A good game would find creative ways to reward the player for having taken a different path than angage in combat.
