We know he lost actual character power and you can stretch it and justify the wealth all disappearing because he spent it all to feed himself, but he doesn't acted like someone who's had social power.
This makes the fact that he's willing to follow and bumble cluelessly around with the PC in the beginning, when he thought transformation was merely days away, VERY jarring.
Given his background, I would have expected him to behave a bit more like Lae'zel (in terms of "take-charged-ness, not so much the hostile attitude"). You'd think he would be the one with the plan (hey I know high-level cleric X, Y, and Z, let's go to them), since at this point, he has far more experience than the main character.
To be fair, Gale has been kidnapped, thrown across multiple worlds via an Illithid ship, and then crash landed in the middle of nowhere. He is quite separated from any wealth or resources he might have had access to otherwise and his magic had been severely depleted and as far as he knows he has only hours to live. All in all he's handling it pretty well.
Plus not everyone with social power is necessarily good at wielding it. Gale might have been wealthy due to his skill in magic but that doesn't mean he's the take charge leader kind of person. If some billionaire CEO was dropped on a beach with nothing but their clothes and had to face the wilderness and a hoard of goblins I doubt they'd prove all that capable. If anything Gale relying on the PC the way he does just shows that he recognizes where his skill set isn't enough to get a job done.
