You're giving Larian too much credit for the other companion quests in my opinion. No one got a truly decent ending except SH and Lae'Zel. Yet, Karlach got the shortest stick available.
There is an overarching problem that even scretches into the conclusion of the main story. It's fair to say Larian was doing their best to give players the impression that they can't write endings for the life of them. I genuinely think this game is missing a whole year of development. It's affecting everything near the backend and particularly internal consistency. It's riddled with bugs and systems that needed failsafes. Much of it is unfinished, unpolished, untested and unbalanced.
Judging by Act 1 and a good share of Act 2, Shart and Lae’zel seem to have the most companion-specific story moments in the world. After them, the three guys get 1-2 moments apiece. To me, aside from Karlach getting the short stick, it sounds like Astarion got megafucked, but I don’t really like him and think any ill fate he likely shall bring upon himself.
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