Yes... but there were so many quests, you might have played 2 hours or 20 hours before you actually came to these quests (e.g. Anomen, Valygar, Keldorn). I think it felt much more satisfying also from a story perspective if they all were not just standing around and immediately available...
I agree that "standing around waiting to be recruited" is bad, but the point in BG2 is that you CAN recruit them as soon as you sprint out of Irenicus' dungeon and do their recruitment quest. You CAN recruit them after you do most of Chapter 2/3 stuff (so most/half of the game), but it's entirely up to you. If they're locked to later story arcs, there's the BG1 problem I've described. In BG2 you can form your desired party at the beginning and go through the whole game with your trusty companions.
