Sorry to hear that you're disappointed with the Origin Characters. So far, I've enjoyed their stories and I don't regret my monetary investment at all. However, I do agree that they could probably take the tag system a little further to make custom characters feel more alive.
With regard to the competitive questing, these features aren't even in the game yet (as far a single player goes). In the future we will not be able to select our companion's choices for them. They will act based on their personality, which will likely lead to conflict within certain party make-ups. There is an interview with Sven floating around out there that discusses this issue in more detail. It also discusses the general direction of Early Access and what other features we will be able to play test. I recommend checking it out.
And with regard to skill crafting, it hasn't been implemented into the early access version yet. Nor has the majority of all crafting for that matter. So we don't yet know what this will look like.
