On the contrary, I think separating combat and social skills is a great improvement for the game. In DOS1, no one was putting points into social skills on their main characters. They put the social skills on companions that will never be used in battle.
The only difference between DOS1 and DOS2 is that, now you no longer need to keep switching among companions to use the social skills and then switch back to your combat-focused companions to progress the game. This is a huge improvement for player's experience.
The main heroes were the only ones who got additional points from talking traits, so please refrain from such generalizations.
Also it sounds even less effective to use one companion never in combat, because he has no combat skills.
Anyway even if you want to play that way, it should be your choice and not forced by a game whose selling point is freedom of choice and multiclassing.
