In that particular context these kisses make sense. Tav would be experiencing buyer's remorse and regretting their decision. Although considering what our characters are capable of, if they truly regretted enabling him to ascend, I'd expect them to try and kill A.Astarion rather than continue the romance.
Unfortunately, for players on an evil playthrough who decided to do the 'wrong thing' simply because they wanted to, Tav's reactions are completely wrong. And the same goes for players who don't accept that helping Astarion ascend is an evil act and who have no issues with the changes to his personality.
There really isn't a clear moral choice when it comes to which path Astarion takes, and that was one of the things that made his story so compelling for me. The alternatives to helping Astarion ascend are killing the 7,000 vampire spawn (I assume their souls still go to the Hells?) or releasing them on an unsuspecting Faerun. It's disappointing to get such a satisfying and nuanced storyline only to have this patch put player reactions to A.Astarion on rails.
Players who are having buyers remorse can end the romance. It's as easy as that. "I'm dumping you".
If they stay it's because they Want to stay.
What's the moral thing to do? Why on earth would I care about the moral thing to do, that late into a morally grey or evil playthrough? The game lets you do so many immoral things. Just in the last 5 minutes of my game I told a caravan of Absolute cultists that they should go in the shadows and die, thanks for the moonlantern btw. And cultists are poor, brainwashed thugs. When I'm in Moonrise I'll likely tell the goblins to just stop breathing. Still debating on what to do with Isobel, but I want Shadowheart on the Sharran path. Let's not pretend that the game cares about morals, please. And let's not pretend that my Tav will suddenly grow a conscience after she sees that Astarion has become... hotter?
The problem here isn't to determine whether AAstarion is or isn't evil. The point is to let us decide if our Tavs still find him hot. If they don't, they can end the relationship or kill him. If they do, they should look happy about the kisses stuff.
