Well it isn't THAT bad. But I don't really think it's EA's fault, they just publish/distribute whatever.. Bioware is the one responsible for the product.
That said, I think it's growing on me a little bit, I cleared it and am currently tryng a 2nd playthrough as a renegade named Haterade Shepard on Insanity difficulty.
It's more my style of gameplay now, the firefights take forever since damn near everything has armor now, and it really forces you to learn your biotic combos and carefully pick your party based on their skills vs the majority unit type you'll be encountering.
Krogans are a pain in the balls if you don't have a lot of cover to kite them around.
Personally I think every "power" that requires both barrier + armor to be gone to use is damn near useless, though I suppose it has it's (lesser) place against hordes of unarmed melee opponents.
I'm really a fan of incinerate with the splash spec. Warp is also another really powerful ability. Every time the Harbinger took over a collector I just slam him in the face with 2 warps and an incinerate if he's still standing and he usually blows up in to tiny bits.
Bind that to "1" on my bar and work on my biotic power/cooldown research.
After you've beaten the game all your characters that you make or import get an extra power you can choose from, and 25% bonus xp
I did 100% exploration and anomaly quests before I finished it, 100% survival rate on my suicide missions, but only hit level 27
I don't know if it's possible to hit level 30 on the 1st playthrough unless you either import a level 60 shepard from ME1 or do the 2nd playthrough with the 25% xp bonus.