If EA had negative impact, it might have more to do with how the game is revealed, and Larian's commitment to the content before the game is finished. By keeping their cards hidden, they would have more freedom to change/cut things as they wish. Let's be honest here. A lot of complains have less to do with what we got (which isn't free of criticism) and more with what people were promised or imagined they will get after playing act1 over and over again over the years. Perhaps playerbase would be more forgiving if taking whole of the game at the same time, perhaps, Larian would be at liberty to change things more drastically for better continuity.
I overall agree with this sentiment. I think Larian committed to some things way too early, and then changed some things, like Wyll and Karlach, way too late. It's been my personal pet theory that a lot of the story issues actually can be traced to them publically locking down the first scene of the game so far in advance (they used it as the reveal trailer) well ahead of EA even being released, and then as the story inevitably developed, that openning kind of stopped making sense. It's why we have strangeness like Gortash sending a whole nautiloid on what's supposedly a stealth mission, but that nautiloid also randomly attacks a city that has nothing to do with anything else in the plot and never gets brought up again even though it reasonably should.
