The problem is the relationship it creates between random people that know nothing about developing a videogame and the sense of entitlement it creates in them just because they coughed up some change cash, which also leads to all kinds of toxicity around the game and its community. The more popular the game, the worse it gets. People who want to donate some money just to support someone's work? Sure, that's great. The issue is people who think that because they paid beforehand, they have any right to decide what the game looks like, or what the devs should spend their time on, as seen in this thread, without looking further.
When that happens, I grow uncomfortable and lose a little bit of faith for whatever game is "taking feedback" in exchange for money to make the game. If BG3 ends up being worse than I expect, it will be surely thanks to this "feedback".
Videogames, as any piece of art, should be made by professionals with the formation, knowledge and mileage on how to make videogames, not by random Joes that threw $30 at their feet. And the artistic choices need to be made by those who have the creativity and understanding necessary, not self-entitled tippers that have no idea of what they are talking about.
EA is just toxic and rotten in the way it is, in my opinion. It corrupts the relationship between players and developers and never satisfies anyone. In the end one of two things can happen:
1. The developers ignore players anyway, and follow their own creative vision on how the game should be - this is optimal for the health of the game, but dishonest, as they pormised they would listen to feedback in exchange for early cash.
2. The developers listen to feedback and change the game to appease the loudest barking dogs, regardless on whether they agree with those changes or not. This is awful towards the health of the game, and results in a much worse product than it could have ever been.
So yeah, I despise EA, and I despise paid Alpha/Beta for that reason, and I believe is a cancer of gaming that may very well end up producing an industry of games that feel more like "fast food" for idiotic masses than anything resembling actual creative quality.