I never saw the gith as the obvious solution. The interaction with Lae'zel makes it very clear, that gith are not friendly towards strangers. Just because Lae'zel thinks, it's the best solution, doesn't mean, you have to agree. At one point, Wyll thought, that auntie Ethel could help us... look, how that turns out (if you take Ethels offer).
In my first playthrough, I focused on finding Halsin and therefore by default helped the refugees. I talked to every person possible and looked for possible cures in every direction. I even did Abdirak penance, because he was a cleric and maybe he could help. So imo the game encourages you, to try everything out and not just run straight to the gith, because a not very trustworthy (OK, probably more trustworthy than the others, at least she is honest about her xenophobia) companion said so.
