I also want to say I agree that the threads in act 1 and 2 don't really pan out in a satisfying way, if at all, when you get to the city. Barcus and the ironhand gnomes and Rolan are the couple of exceptions that come to mind. After years of playing act 1 in early access I was so excited to finally get to the city and see the continuation of certain storylines, but you mostly just find some characters with a few lines of dialogue. It was disappointing.
Mol and the gang of tiefling children story comes to nothing and there's still dialogue indicating that Mol was meant to be in the upper city. Silfy is in the lower city and says she's waiting for them to open the gates to the upper city where Mol is. I'm not sure what the original intentions were but they just stuck Mol in the theives' guild with broken dialogue lines as an end to the quest.
They kill off Rugan even if you save him in act 1. There's no real conclusion to the ending of the Connor aspect of Marina's storyline even though it's suggested there will be if she leaves with him in act 1. You can't have a real conversation with the hag victim you can save from Ethel's swamp. You can't even have a drink with Lakrissa. I guess I expected too much because I believed more of the characters you'd find later in Baldur's Gate would have actual quests when you encountered them.
