Absolutely is if you are pretending to make a sequel to someone else's game.

> Just because there's a '3' in the name doesn't mean it should feel like a clone of '2', especially when the studio changes.

You got that the wrong way around. The original team wanting to go in a different direction is one thing. But a completely different studio wanting to create something very different from the original game should just do that and create a separate game instead of a purpoted sequel. So yes, a different studio being given the license for the sequel (which is already a very questionable practice that rights holders should be called out for) should strive to mimick the feel of the original game very closely.

> Sports game and certain shooters are widely mocked (among nerds) for being basically identical release after release.

What an absurd comparison. Literally taking the infinity engine with BG2 systems and creating a new campaign with that would not even be close to the yearly EA rereleases. And no, I'm not saying that there can't be any changes at all but Larian went well beyond what would be needed to update the game for $current_year audience.