Minthara not being regarded as an actual relationship, because the writers see her as non-white.
The fact that Minthara is recruitable and a relationship option is genuinely surprising given she's portrayed as an antagonist initially. You'd need some really hard evidence that the reason why she isn't in more of the game is because she's a drow.
Lae'zel's writing revolving entirely around her and her culture being savage and evil and stupid.
I really like that the writers did not go with the extremely lazy method of writing companions from unique cultural backgrounds of making them just an "outsider" who doesn't conform to their culture. With Lae'zel a big aspect of her character is she has a great deal of pride in her race and cultural upbringing. And the player gets the option to have her betray Vlaakith.
An entire ethnic group whose storyline is about getting off to seeing them victimized, tortured, and killed while Larian's writers constantly tell you how Refugees Are Bad.
The Tiefling characters get a great deal of screentime and are often regularly portrayed heroically. Siding with the Tieflings is even the choice the game funnels you into which the majority of players end up doing. You can also see it with how Rolan
helps the player against Lorroakan and he chooses to help the player in the final battle if you do.
