If DA2 had the budget of DAO it would have been the best one

Yeah, I don't count Awakening in the dlc bag, though even if I did, I'd still like the DA2 dlc more(but I defo don't think Awakening was bad at all).

Of the post release DA:O dlc, I'd say Witch Hunt and Leliana's Song were decent, Return to Ostagar pretty meh, Golems really meh, and Darkspawn Chronicles... ok, best not to acknowledge that.

It was a mistake catastrophy. I urge you to give it a try. . On nightmare.

I like DA2 despite its' shortcomings and I think there are elements which DA2 does way better than the Inquisition. Side quests, memorable NPCs, choice and consequence. Every time I play Inquisition I curse the non-engaging fetch quests and the stupid 3rd person conversation camera which does some fine work alienating me from what's being said and who's saying it. My Nightmare runs are kind of stuck since I absolutely need to level up (and gain power) but can't find motivation to hassle around these maps.

What I most liked about DA2 was the effect you and your companions had. For example, if you bring your brother/sister to the Deep Roads and don't bring Anders... well, shit. But if you do have him with you, you can save your sibling. Dealing with Varric's brother also differs if you have Anders in your party, dealing with Arishok is different with Fenris, Varric's glib tongue can resolve things peacefully, etc. There's also quests and events which existence depends on your past actions. In Inquisition they pretty much affected only War table missions.
Combat is also my favorite out of all three games. The wave mechanic is rather annoying yes but, in overall, I really enjoy the combat. It's a good mixture of flashiness and tactics. Animations are better than in DAO and it's more fast-paced but the game still has strategy and you can tune your party's tactics and AI.

Long story short... I agree that DA2 could have been brilliant if only they had more time with it. Now the game is hold back by things like repeated maps, lackluster story, limited interaction with companions, etc. Still... the things I enjoy, I really enjoy.

It also suffered from a good dose of what seemed like last minute plot decisions and their now trademark "tell, don't show". Like nearly all mages you meet being nutjobs... the solution was to add the enigma of Kirkwall, a few codex entries that explained why the mages were all gaga. Which makes you wonder why there's still a circle in Kirkwall - it's like having a hospital inside an irradiated reactor core and wondering why your patients don't get any better.

So many things were just codex entries when they should have been shown within the game. I remember talking to one of my companions just before dueling the Arishok, and just after I sorted out the ox guy, I got a codex popup that basically said "zomfg it's like three years since you offed the horned dude and your companion was hanging out somewhere else the whole time and only now showed his mug again so why don't you go and catch up, yo. You're also totally the big cheese now."  Three years with no transition except a few lines of text. I found that very jarring.

And look at all those refugees in Kirkwall! The streets were so empty that you expected tumbleweeds to fly by while some emaciated old hobo plays an Ennio Morricone tune on his bone flute.

Or simple story/gameplay disconnects where you follow those three hucksters that sell the ashes of Andraste and get ambushed by an entire ninja clan with near unlimited reinforcements. I first thought that it meant that I had stumbled on a far larger criminal organisation than I had expected, but no... that was just how quests and combat were going to be in this game. Go there, wave-combat, get objective.

Sigh. I love personal stories, I really do, but this wasn't how to do one.