I can only wonder how much "over-playing" the game plays a role in the the antipathy many express towards the companions. Everything becomes accentuated when stuck for so long in an unhappy marriage of sorts.
Lae'zel is a fascist...which is fair, because she's githyanki.
Know your ideology. Fascism isn't about race, it's about the state and the collectivist view of the citizens belonging to it - like other socialist ideologies. She is a githyanki and as such, indoctrinated into a racial supremacist.
It's a case of an overlap to be honest. Racial supremacy is often a philosophy espoused by fascist states. And it's fair that a githyanki NPC will espouse ideals from the githyanki tradition... which are pretty horrible. People that step out of the traditional world view of a culture... or work to shift the world view of a culture... are generally a PC thing rather than an NPC thing.
Realizing "wow, my people are terrible" is a protagonist deal mostly... and protagonist is the PC position.
That said, it could be an interesting quest-giver too... defector from decadence wanting to work against the reign of [insert hideously evil supernatural ruler name here] can be a good recurring NPC. But that's not what Lae'zel is.
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As a note, I've only completed through to the goblins being dealt with once so far... I've generally stopped every time I hit level 4.
And Wil is okay-ish... and I'd be more interested in following Gale's story and hopefully seeing him mature past Waterdhavian self-importance as he seems to be mostly decent. But the "feed me artifacts" story arc is.... painful.
Lae'zel I'm interested in seeing more of... uncertain with Astarion, the attempt to feed on you combined with the way you meet him doesn't make me trust him.
