When I say create a relationship, I don't mean literally create a relationoship like between people. What I mean is the game needs to create a dynamic between the PC and the tadpole and by extension between the player and the tadpole. What is this game actually about? It's about a bunch of adventurers getting infected by mindflayer tadpoles and stumbling into a larger plot while trying to get rid of them. The thing is though, the cult of the absolute isn't the central antagonist of the game. From the beginning it's clear that they're being manipulated by the tadpoles. Then by act 2 we see who's manipulating them, the chosen of the dead three. But the dead three show up and can be interacted with for like, a total of 15 minutes. They're not characters in any meaningful degree, they're plot devices. Same with the Absolute itself, it's a plot device, not something we really interact with. And the chosen themselves? They're hollow shells of potential, interesting characters in their own right but without the screentime to let us develop a real connection to them as villains. If you take away the tadpole dreams as well, then what is the actual central thing tying this game together? It doesn't matter if we never need the tadpole powers themselves, what our character needs is some force to personally be set agains, some kind of personal antagonist, and by default that's the tadpole. The dreams should still happen because the tadpole is central to the story, it's the plot point that we keep coming back to over and over.

Comparing the tadpole to the mythic powers in wotr is appropriate because no matter what, our character HAS to deal with them constantly. Our character has to see the changes they're undergoing and have feelings about them. In the same way, I think the player always needs to be confronted by the tadpole and be set against those confrontations. Because THAT is how you create a narrative in part by the writer and in part by the player. Not by just letting the player ignore them and go through a story without any sort of focus whatsoever. The tadpole dreams should be our opportunity to show what our character is when they're alone, seperate from the rest of the party and forced to consider how much of themselves they're willing to trade for power. The dreams are metaphor made manifest, they make literal the struggle between power and freedom that is supposedly the thematic core of the narrative. What you suggest would mean good characters can just not confront that at all. The dreams should be faced by a good character because that's how the good character actively makes that choice and can express WHY they're making it, rather than just passively going through the narrative.