That's the point. Follower pathing is inconsistent, but it really is a completely unrelated issue to the party chain. No matter the mental gymnastics, it's worlds apart in terms of systems under the hood. That's not in terms of disagreeing to be clear, I think both the party management and pathing need a bit of love (or a lot, arguably), but it's important to understand those are two different topics and differentiate between them.
The UI is just a visual representation for a player to interact with a system. That has nothing at all, in the slightest bit, to do with pathing. In any slightest minute way. That doesn't mean the party chain is good. It's just not relevant. It's like saying combat feels slow because there are not enough body options in character creation. That seems like a hyperbole, but it truly is that unrelated (purely and solely technically speaking in game code). I don't know how to underline that any clearer😅 Changing the UI wouldn't impact how companions follow one another in the programming in the slightest, nor whether or not Astarion decides to walk through fire because he needs to stick to formation - But a different control scheme can make it easier/faster for the player to stop Astarion before he do. There's the difference and the overlap of systems that I think is the point you're trying to make? Because I think JandK would agree with that as well - Just butting in here because it strikes me as a both parties agree but don't know they do, kinda.
It is a related issue though, because the Chain System is based on "follow the leader," while in BG1's marquee select you select all (or a subset) of characters and then click on the positions you want to move them to. If companions in BG3 run through fire because they're trying to "follow the leader" (as opposed to a normal pathing issue where you're controlling them individually, unchained, and they still run through fire), then that's a problem intrinsically tied to BG3's chain system because "follow the leader" is the only way of moving multiple characters at a time.
So we need to separate BG3's pathing issues into: Does this happen when you're controlling an individual character (pathing issue only) or does it happen to followers trying to follow the leader (pathing AND chain issue)?
