Astarion and Laezel seem to easily fit Neutral Evil and Lawful Evil respectfully and I think were done fairly well. Gale seems to be somewhere neutral and so does Shadowheart (despite worshiping an evil god). And Wyll I'd put between Neutral and Good with being consumed with ideas of revenge and making a deal with a devil but wanting out of that deal. And overall all of them seem hard to write. Laezel is a gith, which is already a unique perspective, but you have to somehow fit her in the group and account for her interactions without making her absolutely hateable. Shadowheart has to appear secretive and standoffish but not an entirely bad person but serving an evil god and having ulterior motives. Astarion needs to appear both very human but also as a bloodsucking monster of the night. Wyll needs to appear like he could be a hero but also desparate enough to commit atrocities and driven tor evenge and getting out of a devil's deal. And Gale needs to seem likeable but with a bit of a dark edge under him with being controlling and the whole needs magic items thing.
They are all difficult characters to write and it makes sense they'd want feedback really early on so they could rewrite them to make better to ensure they succeed at that challenge for at least a majority of players.
By comparison the (suspected datamined) three other companions seem far easier from my perspective. One is a werewolf and likely will touch upon the common elements of dealing with the fact that you have a beast lurking inside threatening to takeover and change you into something you are not. One is a paladin who escaped the hells and wants to escape the bloodwar forever cause she was essentially held hostage. And the last is a fan favorite who is just good and loveable. From my perspective, those would be easier to write cause only the werewolf really has much to hide and they are all conventionally good with two of them having clear cut issues to resolve.
I don't see Shadowheart as being neutral and only as evil. Likewise, there's nothing good about Wyll; he is just neutral.
As for the remaining three, I don't see how a werewolf can be any sort of good companion. Neutral at most, but good? No.
I just can't stand Larian's penchant for taking what are evil things in longstanding D&D/Forgotten Realms lore, i.e. vampires, werewolves, Sharites, etc., and somehow trying to make them not really evil. For Larian, and seemingly many of their fans, this shows "depth" in character writing. For me, it is the exact opposite; I see it as silly and pathetic and a sign of very poor and trite writing. I see the whole "we need to understand and empathize with the bad guy" shtick as the greatest cliche of all.
