The main problem for Ascended Astarion fans is that patch 6 broke his personality and removed player choices quite comprehensively - it in no way affects anything that a player who isn't romantically attached to Ascended Astarion is ever going to see or experience, such players still have all the role playing options to view Ascended Astarion as a monster, no one and so far no patch has taken away YOUR player choice to do so. But Patch 6 removed such choice from his lovers - this is what we are complaining about.
You said it. It really is unlike anything I've seen before in dev interference of gameplay. I do get that it may seem extreme to be reacting so much to just a face expression when someone have not experienced it themselves, I'm surprised how much of an impact it have had on the whole experience of the game. I think it is mainly about dev trust, for me at least I feel the devs violated my game by putting something that feels like a lecture over my own choice. Whether that is true or not.
