Ok, thanks for your responses. I was obviously pretty confused and most irate about just what was being dl'd.
It was patch 2.01 which I thought was still in beta, but apparently not. Due to the number of game breaking bugs being reported due to 2.01, I was reluctant to DL it as I'm playing a druid, have waited 6 months for patch 2.0 to be released, and did not want to risk my playthrough being stalled/ruined. Word is that 2.01 was pushed out (knowing there were game breaking bugs contained in it) because the dlc was unplayable.
Basic communication does matter, basic respect towards your consumers does matter. The store page and forums and "view news" button on Steam make no mention (zero zip nada) anywhere about the 2.01 patch even being released. I saw no response from any Obsidian employee acknowledging the game breaking 2.01 bugs introduced with that patch. Nor is there any official mention about 2.02 beta being accessible via steam. This creates a lot of unnecessary confusion for your consumers when suddenly a 1+gb dl begins. I would have taken other precautions to NOT dl 2.01 if I knew, until a more stable patch was released.
At this point, 6 months post release, I have been able to play very little of your game due to waiting for balance and bug issues to be handled and resolved. Kudos on continuing to support your game. With that said...its also painfully clear that these patches are being released because there are major problems both needing to be resolved and being created with the new patches. Obsidians communication has certainly been piss poor to its customers on Steam which only adds to the frustration and is entirely avoidable on your end. I do hope this is addressed down the road.
I've uninstalled the game and may or may not come back to it in the future when things are resolved. Nor will I be purchasing anything from Obsidian in the near future. Please consider letting your peeps (customers) know wtf is going on with your patches and communicating that clearly to your customers, we care and would like to be treated with the same respect. Both our time and your time is valuable. For now I'll chalk it up to a bad meal and move on.