Larian seemed adamant when stating that nothing was ''cut off'' from the game, especially when the person in that IGN interview brought this notion up on the topic of karlachs quest. But that doesnt mean content wasnt rushed and it definitely shows in most questlines in act 3, karlachs quest especially. They probably stated ''karlach was meant to always die at the end'' because they dont want to concede to the criticisms of karlachs quest having plotholes and not making any sense, cos that would make them look bad or something lol.
We can only speculate what was going on in the writers room and with the executives that lead to karlach having such a lackluster questline. My guess is its a combination of karlach being a late addition to the game which lead to a rushed, unfinished questline, and poor communication within the team on whether a story about someone dying of basically heart failure is gonna thematically fit in to this game's overall story (the answer, in my humble opinion, is a fat no due to her problem being a nothingburger in a dnd world).
Still, the CEOs can spout whatever they want, as long as they and other devs at larian have taken the ACTUAL criticisms players have brought up to heart and can rectify this in a future update/definitve edition of bg3. It still bothers me how they seem to think the only problem players have with karlach is that her ''ending was sad'', instead of acknowledging the actual gameplay and writing issues. It feels super dismissive and makes larian look like they think players are toddlers who just hate sad endings as a whole - and while im sure there are fans who just hate the sad ending, the feedback from players has pretty consistently been about her actual quest having plotholes, feeling rushed and not congealing well with the overall theme of the game. Hell, wasnt there a video from larian where they stressed the importance of player agency, allowing players to use clever problem solving and do whatever they want in the game? That doesnt really fit in with how karlach was written, does it.
