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.
There were 4 companions you could recruit, but you could only have 2 in your party. Nothing stops you from recruiting all 4 though, and they level up with your party, so you could pick two to help you in combat and spend the level-up points from the others all on Barter and Crafting and such.
I support the separation of combat and non-combat Abilities, but I think for D:OS 2, it's better to improve the Combat abilities rather than do another separation of Combat and Skill abilities.
