ok Rush you win, I'm not gonna top a post like that.
Again though, you are killing DS for what it does badly. That seems to have tainted your views of what it does well.
The well thought out part. Having just enough disappear without killing the whole scene. How do you follow your characters through a forst without losing them? You make the trees disappear, but not too many. Having the rooves and bridged disappear so you can still see your character is a good idea which I belive works well. It doesn't always work in DS granted, but the concept is good.
The sheer array of monsters and environments is very good and keeps your interest in the game high. Too many games just have simple environments and a few models with different skins.
You have a wealth of objects to pick up and compare with what you already have. And each object also has it's own model, not just a reskin of another model.
GamePlay aspects. At various Times in DS you are forced to split your party and so you need to decide on how to do this. GAS has injected another level of gameplay into DS by doing this. You also need to mess around with the abilities of your party members to find a good balance. Ranged, magic, Melee etc.
Actually here's a point. In DS YOU control the camera. I find that I'm only occasionally peeved by where the camera ends up. So perhaps the shoddy camera work might have something to do with the users ability to control it. It IS difficult to get used to and requires practice and forethought. But it can be done. And this is the freedom that Gas Games wanted to put into the game. YOU control how the action is viewed and followed. You can decide which character the camera follows. I always have it following one of my Melee characters as they are always right up with the fighting. If I want a distanced view I can select an archer which will take me away from the action a bit. Set your zoom to the scroll wheel on your mouse and you have instant close up or zoomed out views from any angle you choose. In fact as I learn more about the techniques to use, I find that the camera issues bother me less and less. But the onus is on YOU to make the camera work, which it WILL do according to how good you are with it. It's not going to instantly know where you want it to be. YOU have to tell it. So I really don't think the implementation of the camera is all that bad in DS.
The sound is very good, but all too often is forgotten.
You mentioned attacking multiple enemies. You can do this in DS. But you do it by having multiple people in your party. 2 or 3 attacking one enemy and some others elsewhere. Or select them all and click on one enemy. Each character you develop has its own attributed which change the way you play the game. A mage for instance must run away a lot at the beginning, but not so much as the game gets going. But I don't find any of the character classes to be out of balance with the others as you suggest.
Oh and the fact that you can have a Mule! Brilliant! Now you can stash a HEAP of potions and gear onto the mule and cash in big time when you find a dealer. The mule is not stupid either. When you get into trouble the mule will distance itself from the fighting to stay out of the way.
There is more to like about DS, I find it hard to bag the game as you do. But I respect your viewpoint. Perhaps we will just agree to disagree. My apologies for not being on topic. But I think that DS is bagged for all the wrong reasons.
