All those things you just said you loved about DA:O are done just as good (if not better, depending on your preferences) in the other two games :P

The two reviews I watched of Inquisition (Angry Joe and ProJared) both had to mention that they actually quite enjoyed DA2 despite the hatred

I think it was just a trendy thing to hate on BioWare. Other than the town locales being repetitive I haven't heard much legit criticism for DA2. Though DA:I does tend to be a bit buggy on certain platforms, so those criticisms are legit. But I don't think there were actually that many locales in DA:O. They were just more varied. There are no forests or dwarven inspired caves to explore in DA2. But there are like 10 - 15 different places you can go in town, either day or night time settings, a mountain, and some weird amalgam of a beach/field/hill land you visit frequently. Just sayin'