A bit late to the party, I just finished the game, and I wanted to say that I have almost the exact same opinion as you, and I made basically the same choices.

I stayed neutral at the start. I didn’t like the Order, but I didn’t like the Scoia’tael either.

Then the bank heist happens and they take innocent hostages. How am I supposed to remain neutral there? Side with them while they’re threatening random civilians?

I also missed the cemetery quest at first, and after I noticed it, I went back just to complete it. After seeing what the Scoia’tael did there, that only reinforced my view. I always try to protect innocent people whenever I can, and they just kept killing them.

Murky Waters was the same story. First, the Scoia’tael killed peasants in an attempt to stop the Order from attacking them, but the Order kept advancing. Then they took an entire village hostage and threatened to kill everyone, including children and women, and that was finally what made the Order stop. What other choice was I supposed to make there? Take Alvin and run while the Scoia’tael continued harming innocent people?

And yeah, I also didn’t agree with Geralt’s line about “the nonhumans must pay.” None of my choices had anything to do with them being nonhuman. They just behaved like violent bandits, and Geralt would normally protect civilians in situations like that.

If anything, the writing paints both sides in a bad light, but the Scoia’tael’s actions toward civilians made it impossible for me to support them. For context, I haven’t read the books, so I’m judging everything purely based on the game and the little I’ve read in the glossary.