Nah, I don't agree, reusing assets isn't a bad thing. Remaking every single thing from scratch for a direct sequel on the same hardware would just be inefficient and wasteful, the game already took 6 years to make as is. Almost every game ever made reuses elements from previous works, it just makes sense to do so.

TOTK itself does a damn good job of showing the industry how's it's done by making a game that's almost entirely free of bugs while being so huge and complex that experienced devs are flabbergasted as to how its even possible. 

Don't get me wrong, BG3 is a phenomenal achievement, but so is TOTK.

Well, to be fair Baldur's Gate is also reusing assets from the Divinity games. And also mechanics, engine stuff and so on (which also applies to TOTK). But I don't think asset reuse is the real point, it is how much this provides a good gaming experience. I think both succeed on that front. Personally I think yes, BG3 has the edge over TOTK, and also I want to see the smaller belgian studio be recognized. The Metacritic consensus seems to agree, giving BG3 the edge over TOTK (although to note: with only 43 critics so far, compared to 140 in TOTKs case):

If baldurs gate 3 does not win goty something must be very rotten in gaming press

I would recommend if possible to also include lowest scores for titles that were nominated for category GOTY instead of the general and also the score of the one that won.

Nah, it's not the only valid choice.

It most likely will win as it's exactly the kind of game the VGAs love, but there are a lot of great games this year and a sound argument can be made for others.

Tears of the Kingdoms basically has the same Meta. Resident Evil 4, Street Fighter and Diablo all top 90, meaning they are great games. And I can assume Starfield and Spiderman will join the 90+ club as well. So yeah, lots of valid choices. While I personally would really like BG3 to win, I cannot say that outlets would be wrong in choosing one of the other options.

Diablo? That greedy company ruined the fucking game to suck as much money from it as possible, spiderman was my goty instead of gow that year but suderman 2 will be better than 1 but its not a defining gen game, tears is more of the same with improvements. Baldurs gate will shape the rpg landscape for years too come.

Maybe, and as I said I would agree in that BG3 would be *my* choice. I have around 60 hours and not even left act I and have a lot of fun. But that doesn't mean I can't see merit in people liking the other choices this year.

You brought up criticism for other games, but you could bring up some for BG as well. The game has glitches, no doubt about it. Loading times are ridiculous and even after it drops me into the world I see assets loaded and things first looking a bit bare. Multiplayer can be wonky. At one point my two friends asked why I don't cross the bridge, but for me it was broken. For them actually too, they couldn't actually go there, but it *looked* fine for them. The many voice lines can sometimes seem out of place if they come up weird because of the order you did things. And depending on your preferences BG3 can feel like a real slow game. And so on. All these criticisms of BG3 are real. They don't take away the enjoyment I take from the game. But if someone values TOTK, Street Fighter or maybe in a month Starfield higher, I cannot really fault them. It is obvious these are great games as well (for Starfield I at least hope it).

TOTK isn't just "more of the same" though, the Ultrahand mechanic and the possibilities it unlocks are an entire new core gameplay system that wasn't in BOTW. 

Most sequels, at least the ones the dev cared enough, have a lot of new elements/mechanics, so this doesn't change his point. Although I can agree from the videos I saw that TOTK is really very different than BOTW.