I feel like I should just copy/paste this response from here-on-out:
I don't need a perfect playthrough. Missing things is ok. I don't need every companion in my party and 4 is a fine limit for me. I look forward to experiencing events and play styles that I've missed on new playthroughs when I make different choices.
If the story you experiment is totally inconsistent and incomprehensible because you miss too many important things... That's bad.
+1. Again, Larian strikes me as a studio that cares about the gameplay a lot, and in my opinion a little too much. It's much more important to them to give the player options to explore and and experiment than to make sure all the story flags works into a cohesive narrative. And again, it's not necessarily bad, I'm sure there's an audience for it, but it's just not for me.
