I would prefer to see some more "normal" companions. There is no need to just have exotic races or characters with epic backstories to make them interesting. To me it tends to be the opposite, their race, or their epic backstory kind of becomes their gimmick most of the time.

There are many ways to make nuanced, interesting characters without these things. These tend to be more memorable to me as they do not lean on the exotic/epic factor of their character to be special.

I kind of consider to be the case with current companions, their personality and just flavour seems... basic to me. They have the epic backstories and/or exotic race to make them stand out. I am sure many will disagree but that is fine. I have a different frame of reference and opinions can differ. But I tend to enjoy stories with simple beginnings more, where actual low level people without a backstory rise up and forge their epic story as we go along. I do like to play badass characters myself (Who doesn't afterall?) but it feels more rewarding for me to see the characters grow into them from those humble beginnings.

And mostly the common races where the exotic one is rare and stands out by being rare. It also allows you to play an exotic race as your main character/Tav/CHARNAME yourself and stand out (The lone, rare tiefling companion would tands out more than the camp full of them and you do not need to even focus on the tiefling part to still have it be an important character trait that way)