It's a somewhat vague parallel with Lord of The Rings, and the fact that you can have multiple protagonists in a story, or even groups of people acting as a story narrative as a protagonist out of several in a larger story, and work fine; While providing my take on how I'd personally do/want to see it done. The last comment of D&D usually being a party game of multiple protagonists is, like you say, incompatible as a tongue-in-cheek point to illustrate that arguing for a protagonist and arguing for a faithful D&D experience is also 'incompatible'.
Hence, my preferred solution is what I view to be a somewhere-in-the-middle compromise, with player main character being one custom character per player (multiplayer lobbies), and the rest of the party be companions (currently known as Origins). But I suppose I was unclear. That's what I mean by MSQ being focused on the custom character(s) - Namely to have a main quest line that is... Well, the main quest line. And since you (in my take) could only ever start a game as a custom character in character creation, the MSQ would always be the Tav story, just like you say.
Not sure what you're saying exactly, but I think we agree?
Not exactly, but we're vaguely heading in the same direction. I'm advocating for all Origin Companions (and Tav) having tadpoles and being *equally* a part of the main quest, but Tav has an additional sidestory that helps make Tav more distinct and fun to play. Similar to how Astarion has the Cazador backstory and quest. Tav would have [insert quest here depending on your chosen background]. This is the most "party-based-D&D-like" to me.
I wouldn't be opposed to your idea (Tav = The Protagonist). Most crpgs do this. But I think it's very unlikely that Larian will scrap their Origin Companions idea and prevent you from playing as them and/or make it so they don't also have tadpoles.
