I kinda want to update my opinion, the mechanic for mercs is "fine" (gritted my teeth writing that lol) but genuinely isn't for me. For others they do fulfill needed roles or even gives a chance to make a custom character for a friend, so I'd want it still in the game for others. But me, I am not recruiting companions purely to fill slots in my team, I'm doing so because I like "collecting" and playing with different characters that have their own thing going.
So even if they are super super shallow, that small bit of personality works for me a lot better than a generic player created Merc, that small bit skyrockets them for miles in comparison. I don't exactly want Mercs gone, but I don't want them to be even close to replacing proper companions.
I want companions to be throughout this game like past titles. Unique characters we can hire or recruit, who go to our home base and lend their skills to our cause. I'd like to hire Lump who'd come in as a already assigned Eldritch Knight with a horn to summon an ogre once a long rest (and there only being two so if they die they dead). Alfira to be a bard livening up the camp with her music. Flind's appetite satiated enough to keep the gnoll obedient, terrible for our enemies' lives and allies' stomachs. Abdirak being convinced or paid even more to join our merry band, ready to give and heal wounds as a life cleric, while never skipping out on the glorious pain. And so on, characters who joined us, not close to complexity of origin characters, but still unique, standing out and providing a different flavor to the game compared to before. Perhaps monstrous companions having such a tag so NPCs immediately disapprove and fear them, the rest operating under generic tags or perhaps even lacking the ability to initiate dialogue like an origin character to reduce complexity.
And compared to the potential enjoyment I'll derive from that, characters instead of blank slates, Mercenaries only feel like a pale substitute trying to take the place of a much better mechanic.
