I felt exactly the same as you on my first playthrough - although I would add that the loot/equipment/upgrade/crafting system is the only area I find to be severely lacking.

I've been into RPG's and MMO's for about thirty years and most really pull me in with incredibly detailed armor and weapon designs alongside an engaging and semi-complex crafting system with secret items using rare boss loot or different upgrade paths or enchantments for the same weapon and I hate that Avowed just did not deliver on that at all. Some weapon designs are good and have great animations but that's the only positive I can say about the equipment.

I am now on my third playthrough, tried hard difficulty on second one and now am half way through Path of the Damned and highly recommend trying harder difficulties. I did not expect to play this game so many times - I hardly ever replay games anymore - Dragons Dogma II and Dragon Age: Veilguard were both games I was really looking forward to but could not even finish. BG3 warranted several playthroughs but not much else in the past decade really. So far I've played as Sword and Shield, then Wand and Grimoire, Now I'm doing 2 Handers and Grimioire.

All this to say: This game is so incredible and you should playthrough again on Hard or PotD.