For all the narrative import put on the choice to use/not use the tadpoles, the threat of turning into a mindflayer, *and* the threat of seeing what has happened to other true souls being brainwashed....I expected more than just personal headcanon as acknowledgement to the central thread of player character investment in the main plot of the game. The fact that Larian promoted these expectations throughout EA right to the end is a big point against the game IMHO. Hell, earlier in EA we were told about having multiple ways to remove the tadpoles, and the theme of increasing desperation seemed to be a big part of the plot, Raphael obviously being a part of that, with the theme of 'embracing' the power and seeing if you could harness/control it on the other hand, with Asterion specifically being called out as a character who would try to use the tadpoles power even against the group's best interest.
We lost a *ton* of what should have been the meat and potatoes of the game's plot when Larian ditched all that and it turned into a generic powerup system. They still failed at that IMHO, because they made it revolve around 'consuming' tadpoles which runs int on he same problems with using the powers did in EA, in that you can't tell people that something is going to have horrific consequences and expect them to engage with it unless you provide a good in-universe incentive to.
Mask of the Betrayer and the Geneforge games are two instances where the whole 'indulging in corrupting/dangerous power' theme was done much better.
