I just finished BG3 as my first CRPG after dragging the finale along for half a year. Over the holidays I want to play a new game now. I am thinking about playing another game from Larian, but I'd like to know a few things in order to decide (Don't have unlimited time so I want to choose a fitting game for my few free days):

I extremely enjoyed the exploration and little secrets BG3 offered. I loved roaming around the first act and finding a fucking giant spider below the town, a spell tome, etc. I loved finding Auntie Ethel or the Grym Forge. It was especially cool to see a few NPCs return every now and then later in the story. It was very cool to see how things behaved depending on if you were friends or foes when meeting again.

I DON'T care that much about complex combat mechanics since I don't want my exploration and enjoyment of little stories interrupted too much by thinking about my build for longer than five minutes. I played BG3 with "stock" companions and a strange Barde that flirted with everyone and everything as a lead. I prefer combat like in Dark Souls for in-depth builds but want to chill out playing a CRPG.

How do DOS1/DOS2 compare in regards to exploration and mysteries to BG3? I read that they have smaller and lesser maps which sounds like a downgrade. But I want to ask my hopefully not too trivial question here to be sure. Thanks!