This was fascinating to me as someone who didn't touch EA. I think that might go a long way to explain what I'm feeling with the companions in the full release, which is that they do seem to have a lot of thematic parallels (having curses, having complicated relationships with gods/masters, etc) that the story just... didn't actually make the connection between? Or made it feel like a weird coincidence, rather than something the Absolute might actively have been looking for. Knowing that each person would originally see a different visitor in their dreams and that this was going to be a more direct comparison between the companions does make some sense, although I do think it would probably feel a bit too contrived if they went with that. The uh... setup for Daisy on that is something I am definitely glad to have skipped, even if Dream Visitor is rather bland.
The Guardian is more than "rather bland", he's the blandest flavour of recycled cardboard there is (the first few scenes feel like practically a word-by-word retread of D:OS2's gods), complete with patronizing and almost seemingly mocking the player directly with all the combat comments.
As for not being there for EA, eh, not much was missed in the grand scheme of things, because the EA players seem to have become an irrelevant minority compared to the ridiculous influx of fresh blood drawn in by the outlets praising the oh-so-defiant-and-creative (don't forget "inclusive" and "standard-setting") underdog and *that* Halsin's scene which is kind of very tasteless in hindsight given Astarion's backstory. If the EA feedback really mattered in the end, we wouldn't have had the sudden switch to the Emperor (time and again people refer to how it's still Daisy in the artbook), the removal of racial ability bonuses, the grove battle still taking place in broad daylight for no reason whatsoever, and numerous other oversights and dumbing-downs.
