Originally Posted by JandK
If anything, all of this means it's better to play an Origin character. Instead of a typical blank slate with a "chosen one" nod, you get to play an actual character with an actual back story. Sounds exciting!

As for the character's free will, of course you'll be able to make choices for the Origin character during play. There'll still be conversation choice trees, and you'll still be able to pick the option you want. It's not like the whole game is going to turn into a movie once you select your Origin character.
Basically what people are saying above, and what many others have said. If it's better to play as an origin character, then that screws over Tav players. And most people who have played D&D have probably played custom characters. So it's reasonable to come into a D&D game (specifically a BG game) expecting to create your own character. I don't think this is a controversial statement, regardless of whether you believe premade characters are a negligible or significant-but-still-not-majority occurence.

Game with only Origin character(s) = great. I love playing as Geralt and figuring out his story, while also playing my version of Geralt. A lot of work was put into his dialogue & interactions.

Game with only custom characters (with a common chosen one and/or DAO-like backgrounds) = Also great. I can basically define my character however I want given this particular background, and it usually makes sense for my in-game companions to follow me.

Games with Both, like BG3 = Tav gets strictly less content and story-importance than Origin characters, but his existence implies that custom characters are a viable playstyle with just as much content. So it's disappointing when there isn't. But the game also focuses on multiple Origin characters and has to allow for a Tav, so each Origin character and various dialogues can't be as fleshed out as they could be otherwise without requiring a vast amount of extra work.