I agree that NPCs with a single line of dialogue don't need cinematics. It discourages me from talking to random NPCs because it just wastes time. More time is spent on loading/deloading the cutscene than the dialogue itself.
@Frumpkis: Yes, the animators wouldn't be working AI programming/etc. But if Larian didn't have to hire as many animators, then they could hire another AI programmer/story writer. Although, as said in the Panel from Hell, they kind of already have too many writers.