what

yep

>People seriously considering DICE's sloppy copy of a good game for GOTY

I haven't played battlefront (but I dislike shooter anyways) and I've not been able to get into Witcher 3 at all. I've had it for months now and I'm still helping the Bloody Baron since the game just doesn't captivate me at all.

Well it's not a great way to start a game. It feels like it's just gonna be "Go here, use witcher sense, possibly escort, kill monster" over and over, even the side quests .

Every RPG quest ever has been fetch, kill, talk to or escort. Much like the "seven basic plots" that underline every story ever written.
Where the Witcher 3 shines and what makes it the most refined witcher experience is the way it makes you feel like a witcher.
First off, there are no escort quests. In the almost unhealthy amount of time i've invested in this game in the past week (only got it recently because i had to replace my GPU) i have seen no traditional escort quests.
If you get an NPC companion for the duration of the quest, they will be invulnerable and will deal a lot of damage. (There are some exceptions of course, though i could only name one and you're not supposed to escort the NPC as much as you are saving them from a battle).

Second, if you say the words "i have to go slay an arch griffin" the same way you say "i have to go to work tomorrow" then maybe the game isn't for you. And that's fine. Like i said, different strokes for different folks. The franchise has always been about monster hunting since the first book came out. Witchers are monster slayers for hire, it not only makes sense that you should spend most of your time fighting monsters but it would make absolutely no sense to make a Witcher game in which the focus is mostly shifted away from monsters.

Traveling from village to village looking for work, occasionally getting yourself caught up in schemes that Geralt wants no part of, meeting old friends, making new enemies, preparing for battles and making decisions is what makes the Witcher what it is. Every side quest has it's own little story and is done in a way which is very reminiscent of the style and format from the books.
The writing itself is beautifully designed where almost every dialogue option seems to flow into the other. It's not Dostoevsky by any means, but it's not meant to be.
The characters are varied and each has their own motive or agenda that they want to achieve, and very often clash with characters with different motives in a plausible and interesting way. This makes all the intrigue and complex geopolitical issues all the more realistic.

The Witcher sense is a weak part of the game unfortunately, especially in the early game where whenever you're supposed to use it, it seems like you're just wandering around aimlessly until you spot something red then you follow it to the next red thing and viola! An Ekimara.
It does get a little better over time as you subconsciously incorporate it into the whole "feeling like a witcher" experience where when you're given a scene to investigate you could deduce the monster or assailant alongside Geralt which really puts you into this supernatural detective vibe.

Also at some point they introduced metroidvania-esque items and mechanics, but unfortunately they never did anything with them which was a disappointment to me.

The Witcher 3 perhaps isn't a game that can be immediately enjoyed (yes, i know it takes roughly the length of an episode of Half Life 2 to reach the Bloody Baron, it's a bloody long game) if you're a newcomer to the series, which is understandable. There are a ton of characters you'd have to go to the glossary to know who they are, the political situation is confusing and the gameplay seems very bare-bones when you first set out.

I get that, i really do. But i don't say it lightly when i say it's one of the best games ever made. It accomplished almost everything it set out to do, which is not something you can say about every game.

If you want to give the game another chance here's what i recommend. Sit down and have a long session, finish BB, get to Novigrad (sidequests optional) and at least do a couple stages of the main quest there.
If at that point you don't feel like continuing you can safely delete the game and never touch it again.
The session should be pretty long, as i fear shorter sessions wouldn't be enough to engross fully.

iavealotmoretosaybutidontwanttoboreyouandimoutofspace