When I first played the game... And I mean several playthroughs, I was wondering, "Where's my dream person?". Why? I wasn't EVER going to use mind flayer powers. Who would? You gotta know it's bad for you.
Then I decided to just see what would happen if I was a total idiot, and I used them like crazy. Suddenly, there she was. Ah! Now I get it.
Larian needs to tempt players more or no one is going to ever fall into temptation and trigger the dreams. Also, again, if you make Shadowheart so easy to rescue, who WON'T do it? Very few will just ignore her and head to the end. Even in my first playthrough, when you couldn't save her, I ran all over the shop trying to figure out how to.
But, if I'd been presented with the tadpole powers on my first playthrough - use the Dark Side or leave her - I might have just left her. But then... The good side of me might have been like, "It's just one time. What if she dies because you leave her? Maybe you should do it?"
We need MORE of that if anyone is ever really going to be tempted to use the illithid powers. I think it's totally appropriate and makes a lot of sense from a game perspective. It also CAN be explained away in various ways as to why she's in a special pod that can only be operated by illithid powers.
