If this turn of events is accurate, and it sounds plausible enough, it’s kind of ridiculous how deeply buried it is in the game. How much you have to dig. Is it great writing if you never realize it or see it?
I suspect that this was the influence of Disco Elysium - the idea that you only discover the full story if you work for it. In that game you only discover parts of your forgotten backstory if you randomly dial some number 5 times or so.
It's the same with the Mason's guild I completely missed the conclusion of that story on my first playthrough because I thought talking to randos in the House of Hope would lead to discovery and quest failure.
So I don't think the it's a problem that the plot is hard to put together - it kinda fun to put together and talk about in the forums. But imo it is a problem that the player is not rewarded for piecing it together. Once you have read Gortash's notes and put everything together you should be able to challenge the emperor.
Did you tadpole us? Did you purposefully let the tadpoles change our brains?
Even once we uncover the emperor's evil doings the game assumes we trust him. Indeed fans on Reddit call the moment you release Orpheus a 'betrayal' but that's a misreading. Pawns cannot betray their manipulator, they can only free themselves from his machinations.
At @Nella has come up with great suggestions for a 'distrust path' with the emperor.
https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=929396&page=2
