bevinator: BGEE is exclusive to Beamdog, so...

Yes, you'll have to pay $20 for it. The Witcher thing is an exception because GOG and CDPR have the same parent company. That sort of thing isn't offered for anything else.

That said, BGEE doesn't really offer anything that isn't already done by the mod community and/or GemRB, so IMO it's a waste of money.

Grombart: I found the EE to be somehow more enjoyable than a self-modded version of the original game. But maybe it's just because i like to have things "clean" and messing around with fixpacks and mods which all have different optional things to install i always feel like i missed an important option or don't like something i installed and can't change it back without restarting my campaign. So i guess EE is just the right thing for me... ;)