Half-agreed. I wouldn't call people who want an Origin story or Origin backstory unimaginative. And if Larian gives 1-3 options, and they are vague enough, and one of them speaks to me, or I can adapt one of my own characters' stories to fit it, I may well try to do a playthrough with with a slightly pre-determined backstory.
I also agree it's clearly a trade-off here. If the game leaves me total freedom on the backstory and makes no assumptions on it, then it cannot use it and mix it with the global adventure.
But that doesn't feel immersion breaking to me. I can envision a character from a faraway place who was in the Sword Coast because reasons, got captured and infected by a tadpole, went through a whole adventure to get rid of it, messed up with Big Picture World Plans along the way (whoever the Absolute are and whatever their plan is), maybe saved the city of Baldur's Gate, maybe found love, and then will go back to their homeland after that. The fact that the game doesn't imbed My Story into The Story is fine, all the more so if My Story doesn't mesh well to begin with, and The Story can be seen as An Unexpected Journey in the life of my character.
I can still roleplay if I can think : ok, given my character's story and personality, what would they do there, what would they say here.
And if the game can minimally react to my story, that's cool. For instance, the Baldurians (Wyll, Shadowheart, Astarion) can give me more advice about where to stay for the night if I've told them I have never set foot in Baldur's Gate before, whereas if my character grew up there, they might check in their favourite tavern and say hi to the barman.
I'm personally fine with the whole spectrum, from TES-like blank to fixed Geralt. Each of these approaches is valid, if done well, each has its own merits. My point was against dismissing established backgrounds as "unimaginative", not against fully custom characters; I like those too. But it always feels great if a game surprises you with appearing to "understand" who your character is and reacting accordingly. And yes, BG3 already has "traces" of established background.
