PoE is a true heir to Dragon Age Origins, more than because of its features, because of the approach to the first title of the new franchises.
I guess backers were under the impression that being without Evil Publisher Overlords would allow Obsidian to give free reins to their creativity, and my sensation is that Obsidian themselves very carefully created that expectation without ever saying explicitly (although I am probably missing some pieces of information).
But it seems evident that the main priority for this game was:
1) create a new, proprietary IP
2) playing it as safe as possible (hence the Forgotten Realms knockoff)
3) with as little effort as possible (hence the Forgotten Realms copypaste, with a sprinkle of Dark Souls and guns/Reinassance estetics)
Which is why the omnipresent, annoying, hamfisted loredump is what it is: because it is meant to nail IP copyright down to its smallest details, in the quickest possible way. Success.
And the second priority was, of course, pretty graphics, art direction, and GFX, which would guarantee a respectable level of sales (and reviews). Success.
All the rest, plot, quests, companions, NPC's, combat, items, are just cobbled up in whatever leftovers of time, energy and funds remained from the first two priorities, which is why they have huge problems while, for example, graphics are almost perfect. So we have a series of loosely connected plotholes as main story, no player motivation, utterly forgettable main antagonist, see-through companions, excel spreadsheet itemization, copypasted encounters, etc. Even the combat design reeks of having to get it over with as quickly as possible: nail positioning with engagement so you don't have to waste time programming any AI to speak of, make everything work against everything else, and so on. The vaunted need to 'balance' everything actually consists in making everything as similar and levelled as possible from the very start (and gated as well), so you don't have to waste time balancing encounters/levels/abilities/spells. An example of this is character attributes: had they any meaningful impact, the swings they went through during the last Beta versions could have been called huge, but since they were designed to have little impact, Obsidian could just quickfire different versions to see what stuck in a very short time without really having to spend much time balancing.
Dragon Age did the same thing: nail down the IP, playing it safe (A Song of Ice and Fire knockoff with Lord of the Rings baddies), with pretty graphics and animations. Everything else (plot, combat, itemization, quests, encounter variety, etc.), with little exceptions, took a back seat. At least they ripped off (mostly) good stuff like G. Martin's, instead of boring crap like Forgotten Realms, although the final result is bland and derivative as hell just the same.
Which leads to what I think is the main problem for many of the disappointed crowd: that the Kickstarter pitch give them the illusion that Obsidian with no Evil Publishing Overlords would be free to create some amazing and original setting, story, companions and quests, but such freedom was used by Obsidian in order to secure as much of the IP as possible, play it safe with derivative stuff and thinly disguised FR knockoffs, and give everything a nice shine, at the (relative) expenses of the actual game. Which is not bad, but a far cry from what the Kickstarter atmosphere suggested.