Agreed with OP. I had Astarion in my party for the whole playthrough, non-romance, and got the same ending having done exactly the same choices before. It felt like cheap joke. And that you would just stand there "oh well, good riddance" is pretty weird. Sad ending for an otherwise moving story and character.
@Starshine, seems that your ending was sadly bugged. I got a chat with everyone who was in my group: Karlach, Astarion and Shadowheart (romance). And on top of this with Gale, my fellow Wizard, for some reason, but which was probably the most interesting of all of those.
