I'm not sure why are we even wasting time indulging in this discussion as if there was even a remote 0,1 % chance that Larian would ACTUALLY throw out of the window all the work done so far because some forum grognard dislikes production value and finds it "wasteful".
Looks like you like to wast your time in threads you don't like! ;p
Seriously, the OP may be a little excessive.
But the question seems right.
Is it really necessary to have cinematics for all the NPCs we met ?
It's nice feature but it's also a lot of time and ressources spent for something which is maybe not crucial for every NPCs.
Who really need to see the face of some merchants of randoms peasants ?
Making a choice no could save a lot of time and work for Larian so they could use it for something else.
Just saying, just asking.
