Circling back to the original post, here are my views. I'm sure I'm just as wrong as everyone else. ;-)

Lae'zel is an auto include if I don't make a warrior. Despite her stats not lining up with her experiences, she is quite handy with 2 handed wpns and her batter with Shadowheart, Gale, and Wyll are quite entertaining. Looking forward when we can have all 4 in the same party.

Shadowheart is, by far, the companion that Larian has put the most time and thought into. I enjoy that fact that when you listen to the undertones of her conversation with you and others, she seems to want to come off cold but good at the same time. The fact that I can spec her for tanking or ranged, or even both makes her quite valuable to me.

Gale is a blow hard, but he so wants to be your friend, because of the power the tadpoles represent and the fact that you are driven to get to a cure, which means adventuring and finding powerful items. I do enjoy his constant questioning of the other companions and the fact that between him and Wyll, you will always have a moral compass around. At just shy of 350 hrs playing, he's the 1 of the 4 that gets left uninitiated the most due to his high maintenance cost. But, when I feel the need to have a wizard in the party and not run one as my pc, I use him.

Wyll is an auto include for me. As others have arleady pointed out in this thread, and I have in others, he is the classic redemption story. A nonamed worthless noble's son who gets promoted based of societal statis as opposed to working for it, makes bad calls and gets his people almost wiped out. In desperation, makes a deal with a devil who hears his vow for revenge, and immediately starts "saving" others from the same fate his people endured. His fame grows quickly into a legend, "the Blade of Frontiers" despite the fact that he is the son of a noname noble. He sees you as a way to be rid of the tadpole and legitimately become the hero that his legend says he is. When he does finally open up about his patron, and the fact that she's been captured and will release him from his pact with her is a very compelling reason, for me, to see it through. BTW- with her, his patron, being infected and taken to the moonrise towers, you do know who the main boss fight for act 1 is. As I enjoy playing the "face", he will probably be my choice to run through the game when we can choose existing companions as our PC. (sorry, this one went long)

Astarian is Carlisle from Twilight before he saw the light, that's it, story over. I don't enjoy he personal cut scenes, his conversations with the character, no matter what level of approval you get. His incessant need to have sex with you, no matter your approval level is so annoying that I avoid the conversation if he is still alive at the time. With Shadowheart having the urchin background, he is the useless one, for me at least. Could go on, but I don't think it's needed.