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.
Sure. They could have told that story. But they didn't. Script it so that after the Tiefling reveals the location of the Githyanki, going any other direction will trigger a conversation where Lae'zel says something to the effect of:
"The Tiefling said they saw the Githyanki this way."
Follow this up with some dialogue where some companions want to go find the Githyanki and others think that Nettie is the best bet at getting the tadpole out without ending up as Githyanki slaves. The group is evenly split and the MC has to break the tie. If they don't choose to go stright to the Githyanki, we should see the indecision in Lae'zel's face, and the moment she reluctantly decides to stay with the group. If that was the story they were trying to tell, then this decision is the most pivotal moment in Lae'zel's arc thus far. It doesn't get a pursuasion roll, or a cutscene, or any acknowledgment of any kind.
And it's more than just Lae'zel. The legendary Blade of Frontiers has taken it upon himself to help the Tieflings in their hour of need, and enlists Tav to help him. But as soon as he joins the party, he is an obedient little sycophant, living in the shadow of Tav the Guild Artisan. He is literally so obedient that he won't settle a score with the goblin who took his eye unless he can get permission from Tav first.
Gale needs to eat magic items in order to survive. But his obedience to Tav the Guild Artisan is so extreme that he will beg for Tav to let him eat a magic staff that HE picked up and has in HIS inventory. Why in the world would he not just eat the staff that he picked up from Ethel's lair? Why is everything anyone finds on their journey automatically the property of Tav? If Tav's ownership of all the party's property is going to be a plot point, shouldn't there be some explanation of how that ownership was established? What compelling reason does Gale have that he would literally rather die than do something without Tav's permission?
I am not so much concerned whether anyone can come up with a fan theory or headcanon for any particular contradiction that will help them continue to enjoy the game. I am more concerned that fan theories and headcanon are necessary to justify really fundamental things about the characters. It does not give me any confidence that the people making the game care about who their own characters are and what drives them. Even worse, I feel like the people making the game have an attitude that telling a story that makes sense isn't important because "it's just a video game lol." I would love to be proven wrong about this.
