Ah, I didn't know that Stephen Rooney was no longer at Larian. What a shame!
Yeah, he left this month but announced it yesterday.
I agree with your general thoughts, TBH. I don't take approvals too seriously anymore because of what I said, so I don't think it's a priority to create a new system for approvals to branch depending on where the character's going (they don't have anything to actually do this as of now), but I do think DC roll changes to the ritual can be implemented depending on what you did during the game.
For characterisation, I will always take what the character says over what they approve or disapprove of after seeing it be kind of faulty.
I do also think that while Stephen absolutely is going to have a better grasp at handling Astarion, he shouldn't be revered to the point no one else can be fit to do small tweaks here and there. The rest of Larian has also contributed to the character and knows what they intended for his story.
