Anyone can try for themselves -- I found Norbyte's Divinity engine export tool on github.
Make a new PC, get to the first autosave (don't know why it needs to be an autosave and not a regular one), close the game, load the export tool, find and load the autosave, scroll down to line 841. Change the party size value from 4 to 8. Save the autosave file and see if you prefer running a game with 4, 6 or 5 members. You will get pops telling you the save has been modified but it worked for me right up until the point of starting the "we saved the grove" party. Your mileage and all that
For me the battles were more fun and ended sooner because the larger party could take out large numbers of enemies without using barrelmancy.
