We had a similar discussion about this topic somewhere in the forum, and I would like to write about the thoughts I had in a more organized matter so here goes:
I agree with you that it would be better to have some sort of origin story. however, I don't think the current situation is so bad. Not because anything Larian did granted, but actually as a side effect of their design choices. I said it before and I'll say it again - the origin characters as a system suck. the idea to give the player an option the roleplay as a well-defined character is nothing new, and many games did it really well (the best example is probably the witcher games, but I can also mention Dragon age Origins that tried something much more complicated to great success). The novel thing about Larian's origin characters is the fact they are also companions. and it creates a lot of problems in the narrative, some unavoidable and some depend on the quality of writing (that is to say, a more talented writer might have been able to make them work. alas Larian's writer were not talented enough, at least not in DOS2). The biggest problem is spoilers. unless you were living under a rock, the details about all the companions were revealed to all of us months ago, and this ruins the game pacing since the game treats many of the things we knew about them since their reveal as a surprise (Astarion's diet, Shadowheart religious dispositions, Wyll's relationship with demons, etc).
the other major problem stems from the fact that although most of these characters (if not all) will play the role of companions during the game, even though they weren't written as such. If I'll write harry potter's character as is but tell the whole story from Ron's point of view, I'm doing something wrong.
However, I think that Larian unintentionally solved this problem with BG3 custom character. the fact of the matter is, that whether you like them or not, you can't deny that all of the companions are a bunch of extraordinary people with crazy backstories and a lot of baggage. each one of them has a very strong personality and goals. this creates some sort of chaos in the party. from that perspective, after playing Bg3 several times with different party compositions, I feel like it makes sense for them to follow my kinda bland character. the fact your character is bland also means you have no baggage of your own, at least not one we are aware of as of yet, and means your only goal right now is removing the tadpole. when each party member has his agenda, I feel like the custom MC serves as a straight man and a contrast to all the craziness going around at camp, and it's kinda brilliant.
I say kinda, because I doubt it's intentional. If Larian wants to change things and add the custom MC more backstory it's fine, but if I were in their shoes, I would try to figure out how to make the custom MC role in the party more noticeable. maybe create more scenarios of arguments between party members (it's not so hard, shadowheart and laezel already hate each other for instance), similar to the scenarios in Mass Effect 2. Perhaps it was by a mistake, but If Larian will realize what they did it and will embrace it, and make something with it, it has a lot of potential. If not, then I suppose creating origins for the custom MC is fine. but please dear Larian, DO SOMETHING. I DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW COME I NEED TO DO THE THINKING FOR YOU. YOU PAY PEOPLE TO WRITE YOUR GAME. Gods above.
