1) like I said, it's a crpg trope, and it seems hard to construct a main character who is both a completely clean slate of sorts (in the DND sense that the MC could be a charismatic bard or a stupid barbarian) and a guy you have a good reason of following.
2) the origin system - the fact that anyone of the party is also the potential leader, depending on who you chose, makes it very hard to create one unified reason for the party to follow.
Even if it is a trope, doesn't mean it's something that necessarily has to be followed. I think possibly the most elegant solution for the problem would be if the main character was the one who took 'ownership' and is the one that came up with a plan to save them; whether it's going to find a healer or whatever. Maybe when he wakes up on the shoreline the character see's evidence for a druid enclave nearby and knows the general location for where it could be found.
Droatia, in case you read this comment too, maybe Lae'zel stays with the MC simply because despite all of her (considerable) bluster, she isn't stupid enough to charge off into unknown territory with minimal armaments (and skill - as she's somehow only lvl1). There is (comparative) safety in numbers after all.
