I think the discussion who should do a BG4 next is just for fun .. in particular if studios are involved that don't have anywhere close to Larian's budgets and team sizes. Which means, almost all of them. Smaller scale D&D games by other studios? Yes. BG4? No. I can't see Wizards scaling back after this now that they've seen that their IP can support AAA teams and production values (and benefit of it by attracting crowds that otherwise had never touched a party-based tactical combat experience based on a tabletop ruleset).
And yet:
Larian does what they do relatively well, but they seem to (mostly) work best when on their own IP. I'd prefer if WotC gave D&D rights to other companies, if they want to make cRPGs. If they want more NWN2-style "visual" cRPGs, maybe hit up the Solasta devs. Solasta's rough around the edges, but they clearly also love ttrpgs and I think could really make a stand-out game if given enough time and funds for it.
If Tactical Adventures were given the budget to expand their writing team: Between Olwcat and Tactical Adventures (Solasta), I'd personally prefer Tactical Adventures. The amount of pure trash and filler combat in Owlcat games is insane (they even doubled down on this with Wrath, as the RPGCodex review also rightfully points out.)
Meanwhile, Solasta has dedicated dungeon areas that sometimes have but a fistful of fights. And that despite the game being sold on its tactical combat system primarily. Now I like the Pathfinder games (even though I still haven't finished WOTR in spite of owning it since its release over two years ago). But even compared to more combat centered Infinity Engine games (like IWD), their amount of combat is excessive. If they would collect long-term stats, like PoE does (number of enemies slain, etc.) I'm confident it would be through the roof by the end of each game. It's not purely the amount of course. But the paste© repetitive nature of it (in spite of unique scenarios sprinkled in here and there). Granted, the Pathfinder ruleset and its implementation with "buff orgies" prior to fights add to that repetitiveness (D&D5e doesn't have this, as buffs require "concentration"). Owlcat's approach to design seems to be quanitity over quality in general. Just so long as they can advertise their games as the longest CRPGs ever created, they're game.
To be fair, the original Baldur's Gates were more combat centric than BG3 is. Whenever somebody brings up BG2 again, they mainly think the beginning of the game, where you're relatively free to chose between a buquet of quests. But the entire middle section is one linear dungeon crawl full of combat likewise (which IWD1 did better). And neither Baldur's Gate had as many options around direct confrontation as Larian's rendition. Heck, on top of the interactive environment providing added options, even a low int Barbarian is given opportunity to just intimidate foes out of combat fairly regularly.
But still...
