There's also the elephant in the room that has to be addressed at some point. This game attracted the dating simulator players as can be seen by the forum topics (much like Dragon Age earlier). I think in the future a lot of resources will be put into appeasing them and the overall writing will take a bigger hit. They will also gatekeep and form a guard to any criticism Larian receives.
I'm in total agreement with you there. You can also read the writing on the wall with the BG3 mods over on Nexus - for every 5e/RAW or QoL mod there are a dozen cosmetic mods. Sadly, I think that this is the fate of RPGs - maybe we should retaliate by joining SIMS fora demanding more tactical combat.
I am truly scared we are going to see the WoW effect play out in CRPGs. BG3 has been "successful" with the "dating simulator" formula. This means every dev and their brother wanting to do a CRPG will throw the same dating approach into their games and put even more focus on it, doubling down as it were, hoping to strike again like BG3 did.
