DiabolicallyRandom

Would you like to have Photoshop or Windows Movie Maker start everytime you run a game? This is a false equivalency and a rather poor one at that. Steam is DRM - it just so happens to be a DRM that a fair number of people find acceptable. If you don't find it acceptable, no problem! Just stick to a version without DRM - or, just don't support the project at all! I personally refuse to buy the Assassins Creed games, for example, due to the highly intrusive DRM they have had. I find steam drm to be much more palatable - I don't exactly prefer it, but it is something I can live with, that only minimally restricts me.

Pretty much this - if anything, I would favor an option to "hide" quest markers for those players who want a more "natural" experience. Another possible way to handle would be the fashion I have seen other games handle it - a spell of some type that points you in the correct direction (such as an on-screen light trail that is only visible for a view moments), but personally I prefer having proper quest markers that at least get me in the vicinity of an objective.

I pretty much agree with all your points, with the exception of the resources - I think it is doable with the resources there are, but it would probably displace something else, and this wouldn't exactly be top on my priority list. That said, at the very least, some variance in weather between scenes/acts at fixed points should at least be possible, and I do hope they do that.

Or am I just some relic of a bygone era? I have never been able to get into D&D 3.x, 4.x, etc - I still prefer the original "AD&D" ruleset - I know people love to hate on THAC0 but I loved it. It is pretty much impossible to find anyone in my area who still plays the old stuff - everyone I run into either plays something entirely different and won't touch AD&D, or only plays 3.x+.