Feels more like Friendships were scrapped. We needed friendship dialogues.
Yeah, that.
Like in Mass Effect...etc. you have plenty of options to be nice without immediately leading into something romance-related. In BG3 it often feels like I either have to be an asshole (picking something along the line of "fuck off" or "*leave*" with the companion shown as visibly upset afterward) or flirt with characters.
With the usual caveat that I'm still only part way through the game and so there's still time to see some of the behaviour/bugs that others are reporting, that hasn't been my experience at all. My character is friends with Shadowheart (and gave her a flower), Karlach (gave her a hug) and Gale (watched the stars with him and he spoke warmly of our friendship), and none of them have come on to her at all ... yet.
I just worry when I see comments like the above that people will be put off being friends with companions for fear of accidentally starting romances. It's pretty clear from what folk have said that can sometimes be an issue, and I think it's important to identify and report those instances, but I also think it's important not to scare people off saying nice things to their companions that they might find leads to rewarding friendships when those issues don't always occur.
In my case I had to turn two of them down (Karlach and Gale) so that it went down the friendship route. I also think, looking at some of your previous comments, that some of us just feel different about those initial scenes. For me, both of Gales scenes (magic and star watching) are clearly romantic, not ambiguous. You can then turn them down and it becomes a "friendship", but that's part of what makes it less fun. You might also feel a bit different in real life if someone you thought of as a friend (or you didn't even know much about at all at that point) hits on you out of the blue and you had to turn them down.
Of course it's a game, and there is only so much Larian can do. It's clear that romances are really popular and it's also good that they offer as many options for people as possible. People take things differently (like you and I). But personally, like some of the others here, I found the BG2 style overall more satisfying (although not in every aspect, it's an older game after all, and it also has some downsides compared to BG3), and think it would be better if it was the PC who'd have to make a clear first step, except for a few companions where it would make sense because of their character.
And as many mentioned before, if you do go down the friendship route there isn't much going on (afaik). I know of one exception in Act 3, which I found quite moving. I hope we get more options/scenes like that (at least if there is an expansion or in the next game).
And I do stay away from talking more to companions like Halshin because of this issue. Or trying to get to know others better because you know exactly where it leads too. The same thing happens in act 3 if you are friendly to certain someone who then shows up half naked. Which at that point I just found hilarious. Some of these might be bugs, but it really seems like most of is intentional.
