I really haven't understood the reactions I've seen to the game. To me it's a really tight, interwoven, streamlined action-RPG that checks so many boxes for me that other games haven't tried to touch for years. 9/10 from me personally. It's been wild seeing the incredibly lukewarm reaction everywhere else.
I'm with you, I'm having a blast, but I think the reactions are because of the idea that it would be a Skyrim type game and... It's not really even trying to be that. Like you said, it's an ARPG, the roleplaying is basically just dialogue and most of the game is really well done exploration and combat.