Same. Disapprovals to me feel more like discouraging dialogue choices that slow down attitude gain, rather than actual meaningful disapprovals with consequences.
Personally I'd rather have disapprovals tied only to choices directly affecting the companion and their story arcs. Such as pressing Shadowheart too hard about her past and judging her for it. Or disrespecting Lae'zel by taking over the conversation with Zorru or the kith'rak. Or triggering one of Astarion's many outbursts. These choices which directly oppose and affect companions should carry disapprovals and consequences.
But for random dialogue choices that do not directly involve their personal stories, I think only approvals should be a thing. They would still express their disapproval about random choices during a dialogue, but there wouldn't be any attitude loss nor a big pop up saying "Character Disapproves". This way they'd retain their personalities, agreements and disagreements, but not mechanically feel like you're doing the wrong thing just because they don't agree with something you did for a random peasant.
Same here. Dialogue disapprovals are a pain in the rear as I always try to shuffle the party to get max approval out of everyone. Which is... really terrible
and interferes with the gameplay.
The better option as you said would be to tie companion approvals/progression to their personal stories and dialogues. At least there you can somewhat manage the companions you keep and let go, instead of the party that will change randomly depending on whether you picked a flower or kicked a puppy.
