Let me put it like this. If you play a Mario game, you expect to be able to pick up enemies throw them twirl them around jump on their heads and other ridiculous comical antics. The bulk of the game has these antics. It's not serious. It has a story, there's character interaction, and so forth, but you wouldn't call it a serious RPG even if you're playing paper Mario. The game is designed to have lots of ridiculous mechanics that are funny and fun and comical and not serious.
The original BG games were not designed to be overpoweringly comical. Yes, there were a few mechanics and items in the game that you could get that may have been able to be used as gimmicks. Yes, there were some things that were just broken and if you discovered those things you could have used them to beat the crap out of serious enemies.
The question was posed to me, why do I think that this game should be serious? What made me think that it is supposed to be a serious RPG? My answer is the tone and style of the original games was serious. It was not a Mario style game. You didn't have the ability to shove enemies off buildings 30 ft from the edge, or any of the other ridiculous things that I've mentioned a thousand times.
It was not a few gimmicks, that is the point that you are missing. When I can finish the game with a level one character - a mage using wands in BG1 - then that is silly in my opinion. Fun, but silly.
The lack of an alignment system is silly, but not fun. Because to roleplay a good character that slowly gives into the corruption, I'd have to wait until the end of SoA. Before that, the only thing that happens is the reputation drop. So the actual consequence of playing evil is dealing with shop proces and respawning guards. There is very little reaction from the main plot, to the point where it becomes absurd. Such as getting celebrated as the hero who saved the elven city, even though my character destroyed it.
