Up to a point, I don't think the "cinematic RPG" or companion romances or a bit of streamlining or the introduction of action elements are such bad things in and of themselves, or even in combination; and re. whatever sickness they reveal, that sickness is in something that was already latent in society generally, and such games are just the messenger.
It's a bit like the piracy argument. One might say piracy eats into profits, but on the other hand most of the people who pirate would never have bought the thing in the first place, so (with some exceptiopns, granted) it's not really a loss of profit (in fact if anything it's free marketing if a product is pirated, because it means the thing is probably good, and the pirating helps create a buzz - in a way, it's more like a form of market segmentation at the "free" level).
Analogously, one might think the BioWare schtick "squeezed out" better game styles and game designs. But not really - the market for better (more nerdy/crunchy) game designs was already saturated (there are only so many actual nerds in the world and they were probably already making and playing vidya). And there are still tons of good games being made at the sub-AAA level, probably about as many as when the business was still by and for nerds (e.g. in recent years games like Troubleshooter or King Arthur are examples of good gameplay "classics" that can stand pretty well with older classics., while Kingdom Come Deliverance or even TW3 are examples of the "cinematic CRPG" experience done well).
From the normie point of view, CRPGs are adventure sims and gesamntkunstwerken. That's all normies are interested in, they're not interested in the various failure states on the way to achieving that, the various genres and sub-genres that the drive to that ideal has hived off, that have become for many of us treasured items from our past.
That kind of normie-attracting gesamtkunstwerk will always be what developers who are aiming to make a profit are aiming for within their resources, and whenever a developer approaches some aspect of that ideal more closely, that CRPG will be a breakout hit. If they also add elements that "attract the wrong crowd" that's just an unfortunate side-aspect (and as most of us know, it's something that's been pushed on developers, not something they've necessarily done organically, either for passion or for profit).
You can see this really clearly by comparing and contrasting BG3 and Failguard: the former is a genuine "cinematic RPG" made by nerds who, for all their intellectual faults and kinks, have a love for the genre; the latter is the dire and direct result of DEI hiring policy. With the former, the game is good enough in its basics that most of us here can probably get some fun out of it; with the latter, it's totally hopeless. But note that the former is also a big breakout hit with normies - not just with pervs, but with actual masses of gameplaying normies who will only play a big breakout CRPG now and then.
When? Well, when it gets closer to the criterion I've outlined: of being a gesamtkunstwerk adventure simulator. And the BioWare of old pioneered that.
