I've had a theory for a while, that Larian doesn't actually care much about roleplay. They give tools for the player themselves to have agency, but they're not actually concerned with Tav having agency. It's more important to them that players can do as many random things as they can think of than it is for players to play a character whose behaviour is consistent and nuanced throughout the game. I think this hange supports that theory. Larian doesn't care about Tav as a character and who they are or can be. So they change the expression and give what they felt to be a stronger story for players to see. I don't expect that Larian saw thi as taking any agency away because well, you can still kill Astarion or whatever out of dialogue, etc. Tav isn't meant to be a character we imbue with deep feelings and a unique internal life from playthrough to playthrough, they're meant to be a vehicle we drive through the game to see stuff with.
