They said switching speakers mid-dialogue would lead to too many permutations to be able to do.
That's fine and understandable. No one is expecting a 5+ people conversation that can go anywhere. But not letting party members to use their skills is not ok. Gale could easily interject with a History skill check, which would then give the speaker the knowledge to continue on that branch. There are many situations where everyone in the party should be allowed to roll a skill check, even if only one is doing the talking.
Interstingly, the origin characters will pitch in knowledge at some points when you miss skill checks or even before you roll if it is an important topic to them.
