It's very true that if you deal with the goblins soon after getting the quest you probably won't get a lot of the companions past the required threshold. I do think an average RPG player will try to finish all the sidequests before proceeding with (what looks like) the main quest, so they'll have more opportunities to raise approval.
Well, certain cRPGs might have taught me to do the main quest first.
I guess it depends on the player.
Astarion can be a little unintuitive. On Medium, he'll only agree to spend the night if he's the one making the offer. It's interesting that you got an offer from Gale, though. To my understanding, you can get him only if you resolve one of his camp scenes – the one where you cast a spell together – in a romantic way. Was the offer actionable?
I was actually quite split between Astarion and Shadowheart and was simply probing the ground with "What's your idea for fun?" . He went totally with "sex but not with you, it will be ridiculous". Maybe because my character (a drow) did not take most kindly the attempt to be kept as a hostage and being stalked at night (Astarion got headbutted and hit with a fist respectively). He still gave him a little bit of his blood and allowed him to feed on enemies... It's complicated, I guess. Overall, there was an agreement between the two (with occasional compliments and very light insults that did not seem to lead to disapproval). I even got to High Approval with him by the time we reached the Grymforge.
Gale: nothing of the sort. He has just asked me for an artifact. I had none at the moment (some time after the feast I fed him the Thay book and the Staff of Crones, which very fast rocketed his approval to High). I have no idea what cutscene that would have triggered but he was quite invested in his offer. I got some disapproval for rejecting him. Btw, it was certainly not the story about the book and the orb. I got this a bit later. Wyll was cool with rejection, though.
Shadowheart's romance progression is probably the best in the game right now. You can flirt with her a little, it's not too overbearing, and the lowkey, relaxed romance scene feels like a natural progression of that. The player also has a lot of agency in how it can play out, and that's always good. Coming out to her, drinking the wine, and immediately leaving is pretty fun.
I think she will most probably be the romance choice once the game is fully released (I am planning of playing this character once the game is fully released). I was surprised how well the conversations were flowing between her and the drow. I guess the fact he respected her secrets played a major role in it. If only he had passed his insight check.
(I avoid reloading).
