I enjoyed it.
I accept all of your criticisms, but I still enjoyed it.
I just wish they had spent an extra, say, 6 months on it. To make a couple of extra dungeon maps, to make the story flow a little better, to make the combat, especially the CCCs (which were excellent in theory) a little more interesting. It is like the idea of a good game, squeezed through the generic game making machine of EA. I loved the feeling of being a city's hero, making his own way and carving a name out for himself in his little corner of the world. No enormous demons, no world threatening enemy. One man, his companions and a city to fight for.
It pales in comparison to the first, but I thought it was a solid game I have enjoyed twice through.
My captcha is dollars to donuts, which I guess is a fairly good (if abstract) metaphor for Dragon Age's progression...