The only thing "Bioware" in there is the engine they had borrowed. Everything else was supposed to be a dungeon crawl, like the good ol' days. The good ol' days before anything "romance" became a feature ticked off a list of features.
Actually, Baldur's Gate, where they got the engine from is a Bioware game. But, that didn't have romances and npc's you could really talk with either. A handful of characters in BG1 would have one line when you finish their quest, but that was it. The whole party banter and romances and stuff - wasn't until Baldur's Gate 2, which came after Icewind Dale. So, they didn't 'take that out'.
In fact, that studio later grew to be Obsidian Entertainment, and is largely responsible for many of the relationship stuff we see in BG3 and other crpg's; such as the 'approval meter' etc, which was introduced in KotoR 2, also by Obsidian.
