I agree that the game has some issues but I think there is a lot of over reaction and misinformation going around, because people simply do not know how games are made. I don't say that I do, but I have read a lot on the subject and played many, many games.
In any open world game it is very common to have pop ins and it is not simply a matter of patches to fix it. People actually believe that CD couldn't fix the pop in issues if they wanted? Of course they would, but that would deteriorate other parts of the engine and drop the frame rate a LOT. You have to understand that an engine is being built on limitations and not abundance and that the developer has to take into account the averages of the PC consumer and knowledge.
One very important thing is that some people don't understand CD's choices as far as immersion goes. W3 has unified interiors and exteriors, something which have never been done and is the number 1 factor for immersion. You don't get a loading screen when you enter a building, like it happens in Skyrim for example, it exists in the world. Do people have any idea how power hungry of a feature that is?
Also, about the Lod mod. The mod doesn't fix the pop ins, it merely expands on the engine's capabilities. But. By stretching the assets, LOD creates extra problems in close distances who people believe is the fault of CD (you can find this in the comments section on nexus). By using the mod you get better texture lod but many times, your immediate surroundings, items, etc pop into existence out of nowhere. That is the price you pay. Plus, it drops the frame rate when you use it in combination with the ultra settings.
In comparison to other game makers, notable Bethesda, W3 is on a completely different level and no way near as broken as games like Skyrim of Fallout 4. If you take into account the animations, facial details, lighting techniques, the size of the world, the neverending content of quality quests and writing, the amazing expansions and general support of the game (skyrim is still using community patches after 6 years) it sounds quite arrogant to complain about about problems that games much less ambitious have.
Sometimes it's good to take a step back and appreciate what we have and, more importantly, don't blow things out of proportion. Saying that pop ins are game breaking, when in reality they are far from terrible in such an immense world and draw distances, reeks of entitlement.