I think this is the community's fault. Originally in EA it was clear that Tav was going to be fully voiced, with a choice of voices and personality, with the intent to have preconfigured encounters depending on the choices you made for background in character creation. (So I bit like Dark Urge, but voiced and more mix-n-match.) The community here was quite vocal in saying that it didn't want a Tav with a personality because it reduces your own ability to roleplay and imagine your character yourself. So Larian dropped it. You can still see some of the artifacts left in the game - for example Tav will occasionally speak.
