Not sure it is better or not, haven't played BG2 in literally decades, but I feel slightly disappointed by PoE II . To me it felt a bit less of a grand adventure and more a go check a few emptyish islands with at most 3 encounters but mostly 1 , get some bounties. There were no real complex involved side quests, nothing extremely involved even PoE had the endless paths, Fulvano's voyage felt like it could have been something similar, challenging exploration with interesting back story, it ended up being even less imaginative like endless paths.
And in the end of all that could have been irrelevant if the main story was deep and meaningful and bigger in scope but it really was not.
So yes it started with a lot of promise and enjoyed the different environments but it felt a bit hollow and unsatisfying. I was hoping the DLCs will add a fair bit of meat to it but it sounds like this hasn't happened, I will wait to get and play them all when they are all released but meh.
I think this is why I came to post here, because in the end the mechanics of the battles might have been worse in BG2, but I remember it being more fulfilling as a game with a much grander main story .