Honour mode made me above all realize the partly bad writing of the story, the bad quest and the partly bad combat design, because you see and fear the consequences of failure much more. Not failure in normal combat against mobs and bosses, but by scripting. Failure in the Isobel abduction would shut down huge parts of the game for example. I wonder how many of the people who find the Isobel abduction a fresh and pleasant idea actually played with the consequences. I would not. Another example, failure in the Halsin portal quest shuts down an important part too and the failure can come easily because the portal is destroyed.
So the difficulty for me in Honour mode is not difficult fights or boss abilities but careless story writing and the use of scripted unimmersive nonsense which might be ok as a "surprise" if you can reload but not in a one-save gameplay. I was annoyed about it in my first playthrough too, but now in Honour mode it's even more present. Not a pleasure for me.
They seemingly toned down the Isobel stuff considerably, it was not difficult to succeed, but I still really dislike the whole idea of the setting. A game where pressure is not an element of the fun but just labor is not to my taste. I'm considering to stop Honour mode (also because the bosses are not that difficult in it, so what?) and start with a Custom campaign with house rules (no reloads except to battle Larian's bad design).
It's not bad design because there's a chance of failure. And it's certainly not bad "writing" because you don't want to fail in those scenes.
The idea is to continue with the consequences. Yes, I think it's good that these consequences are in the game, and yes, I continue to play when those things happen.
I understand if it's not to your taste, even if I can't claim to understand your taste, but that's not the same thing as bad design or bad writing. It's just you not liking the aftermath of those failures within the game.
