I do think that arguining that EA was detrimental to the game a hard position to argue. Surely one polished act is still better than none.
It depends. A lot of speculation is required for an accurate assessment.
Like, how polished would all 3 acts be if they didn't spend an inordinate amount of time fine tuning Act 1? Having 3 "Decent" acts could be considered better than 1 "Good" act and 2 "Bad" ones (Even more so when Act 3 is typically the climax of the game's story).
Just, we don't know what Larian can do with a game without this method of extended Act 1 EA. Since all their titles thus far have followed that same formula of having Act 1 in EA, with extended development and polish... Then they quickly remember there's another 2 acts for the game and smash them out as fast as possible (With deteriorating quality as the game progresses).
All we can say for certain is EA and its extended development time is overwhelmingly positive
for the specific act being worked on. (Which is not a particularly groundbreaking revelation... We already know that more development time can lead to improvements on its own. The EA thing is less demostratably impactful - We don't have samples of games using the same development time but one using EA for feedback and another being totally in-house to be able to gauge the impact of the EA feedback itself) It's impossible to say whether it is positive or not for the
game overall.
I am particularly curious as to what exactly Larian can actually do on their own, given their constant EA usage. Like, they're using AAA studio budget, so they should be capable of QA and development in-house to a standard that is expected* from such.
EA would be most beneficial for smaller, indie studios that simply don't have the resources to test so many variables, so outsourcing testing to EA players helps provide the information they need to make adjustments. (Not to mention, the additional cash flow from EA sales can often be what enables such a studio to actually maintain development)
Though I suppose one could theorize that for a AAA studio, EA can allow for feedback be provided, allowing more paid development on actually implementing improvements.
*Modern trends having many AAA studios push out cash-grab slop aside.
