Honestly the hirelings are.. baffling to me.
Its one of these thigns where Larian just keeps... pulling stuff that is kind of indefensible.
Its not terrible, i wont be using them. But its one of these things that makes it impossible to talk about the game in public forums because people will just point to these dumb descisions and say larian is insane.

For what purpose would you have predefined characters that have no personality anyway?
Just let the player make their own companions it worked in divinity, it worked in pathfinder, who the hell wants a "custom" party ofl.... predefined characters.
its like picking the standard party members in Icewind Dale, who ever did that? not one person im sure.