Isn't the whole "wasteful" aspect just mean you're assuming it somehow means they had to cut corners?
I am, because they had to. As they say "You can't have your cake and eat it, too", so when they spent a disproportionate amount of of work on a single character to "make it work" from different perspectives, they are IMPLICITLY cutting somewhere else. Which is why we have a very narrow selection of companion (that even "data leaks" don't seem to expand significantly) and quite possibly also why we haven't "demanding" features like your average day/night cycle that has been a staple (and a standard) in the genre since Ultima in the early '90s, if not even before.
Party control in Baldur's Gate 3 is a complete mess that begs to be addressed. SAY NO TO THE TOILET CHAIN
