I think you're looking at it from a different angle than it's intended. Instead of considering it a change of class, consider it more like retconning the class. We're changing who they've always been. Sure, it's immersion breaking, but it's also immersion breaking when I get up to refill my glass.
The option being offered is "hey, so you think Shadowheart is more interesting as monk or druid? Knock yourself out!" It's just a different way to tell the story
I mean, I see your point but you can already make Shadowheart a druid or monk via multiclassing. It's bad enough that you can also make her any other class just as easily and I would personally leave unrestricted multiclassing and removing that 1 cleric level to mods. Before someone asks 'but what's the difference if a mod does it and if it's a built-in feature?', I'll try to answer that too: It's a way for Larian to set respectable boundaries. That way they say "This is Shadowheart, she's a devout cleric of Shar. This is our vision for her and if you choose to deviate from it somehow, the game may respond in incoherent and immersion-breaking ways." This is a message I'd respect. Class respeccing and the removal of multiclassing requirements is more like saying "This is Shadowheart, she's a devout cleric of Shar but you know what, who cares, make her a barbarian or wizard if you want lol". I can understand that to some this is simply Larian being inclusive and wanting everyone to have fun, but to me this is them being a DM who can't say no even to suggestions that break the lore of their world.
I can't speak for everyone, but I know that when I open Kingmaker and ask "hey, Valerie has great stats for a Paladin, can I make her one?" and the game firmly says "NO", I have much more respect for it and its creative vision than for a game that lets me turn a githyanki soldier into a bard or remove all druid levels from a literal archdruid.
I'd like to say though that viewing it as a retcon didn't occur to me and it helps me see a perspective from which this is not so horrible. I liked how Deadfire handled this - each companion had a set of 3 lore-friendly class and multiclass options to pick from. This was a fine compromise that allowed some variety while keeping everyone restricted to options that made thematic sense for them.
So if Larian put a big fat warning up whenever you want to respec a companion away from their default class, letting the player know that they're breaking this particular character, then it's all good?
I would happily accept this, but I think the main concern is that it might screw with class and companion reactivity and the ludonarrative consistency of said reactivity. Idk though. I'm uncomfortable, but I'm not exactly one of the hardliners on this issue. I'm more of a "I'm not so sure about this" kind of guy.
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