By the way, from Community Update 22, end of Juli a few days before release talking about tadpoles.
While these creatures may be a source of great power, all that they offer comes with a cost. As the parasites' hosts, you must make a choice. Will you resist the powers and the corruption that comes with them or will you embrace them, risking your body, mind and soul to save the Realms... or destroy them?
and
The deeper you go through the illithid skill tree, the more powers you'll discover. But nothing comes without cost. While your companions can also consume parasites to gain their powers, not everyone in your party will agree to it, and your companions' perception of you can undergo a significant shift based on how you approach this opportunity.
Things can also get a bit more… complicated. But we won’t spoil it. That’s for you to discover.
Nothing of that is true and you can't tell me that 3 days before release consequences were still in the game and were removed after the update. So Larian knew fully well that what they promoted was not in the game.
Ps: And remember that the official reason for the earlier release date wasn't Starfield, but because the PC version was progressing so well...
