Well, sure. If Chess was Checkers we wouldn't complain about missing the horses and queen, either.
You got it
Sure, but did you? Because my point, in the end, was that Chess is NOT Checkers. Which is why expectations are different. As they should be.
This heads into the territory of: "If Larian changed ALL the reaction abilities (including Smite, etc) to work differently - having different effects, duration, trigger, and/or resource cost - and these changed abilities were designed & balanced for whatever reaction system BG3 had, then things would be fine." Which, I mean, yeah practically by definition.
However, "if these changed abilities were designed & balanced for BG3's reaction framework" is a big IF. Given how many of Larian's initial designs decisions are just completely unbalanced/OP (Backstab & High Ground Advantage, Sneak exploitation, cantrip surfaces, throw/shove, etc) my hopes for robust, fun, & balanced new reactions designed for an automatic-use system is...not high. Though, BG3's implementation of Cutting Words is moving in the right direction imo, if Larian isn't going to implement prompts.
Also, yes in this case Larian would be changing something that is currently not broken. So if their modifications resulted in a worse experience, that'd be entirely on them.