Yeah, +1 towards needing to actively pursue quests to keep companions, though you’d need a safety valve to make sure the player isn’t left stranded all alone.
On a related note, I never swap out characters from my party with the backbenchers, unless I want to steal their gear to sell it or give them pants when I’m rich and tired of seeing nudists in my camp. I pick a party and stick with them, so I wouldn’t mind if the leftovers were scraped off the plate of life at the end of act I.
In fact, culling the hangers-on at camp would cut some of the awkwardness around the “wait for me at camp” mechanic where these naked strangers somehow know what I did all day like they were hiding in the bushes while me and my real friends risked our lives.
