Unsurprisingly, this thread airs the same arguments and concerns as previous threads discussing the reaction system in BG3, and suggests the same set of possible solutions.
The Solasta reaction mechanism works for them, since they are aiming their game mainly at the smaller ( ~10M ) 5e audience, so a TT-feel with minimal production values fits well with player expectations.
The problem Larian have is that they want to create a game with general appeal to the larger ( ~200M ) videogame audience, so they want smooth high quality animation and gameplay. This is difficult to achieve if the flow of the game keeps changing due to reaction choices, so they have their automatic system that allows the game to process reaction choices before animating a turn.
It's fine at the present ( unless you are really grumpy about deviation from tabletop ) because there are few reactions implemented, but it will become increasingly unsatisfactory as more reaction behaviours are implemented.
It seems obvious that, one way or another, if Larian don't want to have a stop-start animation experience, they will need to have a highly configurable reaction system; and even then there will likely be players that don't like any form of automation.
Options are key. Leave it on auto for the masses, give experienced 5E players the ability to do reactions manually if they prefer. Earlier infinity games (including BG), despite being real-time, had user configurable options on when to auto-pause, which is really no different. It would essentially stop the flow of combat to let you ‘react’ to various situations.
