I decided to go back to this game despite not thinking about it for the past 2 years at all and my original thoughts become even stronger.
The dream sequence with "Delores Dei" is worth even hundreds of hours of gameplay to get to. Not sure how it changes based on all factors, but playing someone genuinely slowly fixing themselves and getting lost in that experience only for that conversation to strike you down isn't something you'll find in any other game.
This is a game where there's no point in getting into arguments about if it's an RPG or not, if it's "woke" or not (although the people who say that are retarded). I genuinely feel bad for those who let their stubbornness deprive them of this, or those who don't get sucked into the hard-hitting portions of this game, even if the comedy can carry the game on its own.
Writers went through this shit, there's no other way you can conjure up these scenes without that.
I would never add it to a list of my favourite RPGs because playing this did not feel like a game, not in a bad way, it really is one of a kind. Many games are believable, a monkey could write a believable story if you just start them off with the words "Socratic Method" (Tells you a lot about the writers in BioWare, etc.). However, I haven't played a game and don't think there's one that's this unflinchingly realistic.
I think it's time to do a fun, physical dumb brick playthrough next time