I am just because we didn't get a bard companion. It's basically the one companion that a DnD party must ever have and we got none.
Halsin replaced our Bard, Helia the Werewolf Halfling Bard was a planned companion that got scrapped in favor of redundant druid boy.
That said, as much as I don't really like Halsin a lot, I'd have preferred him over Jaheira. Now I don't know too much about Jaheira, but I just don't like nostalgiabait. So I'd rather they'd replaced Jaheira with Helia, and Minsc with someone else, too.
They didn't make Jaheira nostalgia bait. She is a wonderful character in BG3 and I'm glad, they included her. Halsin though... don't need him, for reasons I stated in the post above.
From all that I've seen of the game I also would agree that Jaheira is a great character whereas Halsin I could do without. But I, as someone who does not believe Larian's writers are particularly good, would argue the reason Jaheira is a great character is precisly because she's a character origially developed by other writers in another game, and not a truly original Larian character. Jaheira is awesome in BG1 and 2 also, and has always been in every one of my great many playthroughs of those games, and is also always my only romance interest in those games.
