I don't remember who mentioned it a while ago (Niara maybe?), but someone not me mentioned making whoever you chose as your playthrough the "chosen one", and the others at that point taking a more supporting role. For me, that would automatically make my custom character more important, while still letting the origin characters shine if you chose to play as them.

That said, if i have to choose, i would choose No Gen all the way. despite some people's insistence that D&D is just full of a bunch of people playing pre-generated characters beyond just being newbies, I can't imagine playing a table top role playing game without my own character.