All the surface effects are vastly toned down in BG3 compared to DOS2. This time they are not a massive nuke or a primary strategy, but they - indeed - feel more realistic. Ice the floor, enemies can slip. You won't then melt the ice, electrocute it, and turn it into cursed acid and explode it. And then there is Concentration, but I am not touching that here.
Weapon coatings are cool, but, like so many other DnD things, they don't translate very well in a CRPG. DOS2 did all that better, and for a very good reason: it was designed from the start (well, DOS I guess) to be not just a game in the style of BG, but to be the perfect traditional RPG but in video game form. Things like coatings using your bonus action (and preventing you from doing so many other things, even though you have an action remaining) invariably lead to players either ignoring them or being forced to go full meta and prepare ahead (in situations where the characters wouldn't).
