Yes, Astarion definitively defines the relationship and speaks of love forever, then when Tav becomes his consort or speaks of caring if Tav remains his partner. I don't think he'd mind, or would refuse like Lae'zel, if the player had the opportunity to define their relationship to him earlier and speak honestly about their feelings for Astarion to him and those around him. He'd be more likely to like it, even if he doesn't define the relationship himself yet, just as loyalty on Tav's part would make Astarion feel valued and important to Tav. And it seemed to me that if there was a way to refuse the companions, honestly explaining that I just love someone else, not as if I didn't like the person who was paying attention to me, as if he was bad or wrong for me, it would sound less hurtful to them and maybe Will wouldn't make such a miserable face about refusing to dance with him. But overall I agree that it doesn't have any global significance to the romance story, just extra lines for the player's enjoyment, it can just be added by mods in the future. Overall, the only thing Larian should do regarding romance is to remove some of the nasty things added in patch 6 that keep people from getting into the game, otherwise they have already done a lot and done more than enough. Other aspects of the game can be addressed.
About the "advertising" promotions, I fully support it. It's pretty nasty, demeaning to the character and the fans of the character, it doesn't add anything good to the perception of the game. Though I may not understand the "mass audience" well, maybe it does. Considering that I myself belong to a superfluous audience and bought the game with a completely different idea of what I might see in an RPG, it's unlikely that Larian wanted to attract such an audience and counted on it at all, it's not for me to judge how profitable/unprofitable it is to do certain things. Then again, considering that I would refuse to buy after seeing such "ads", especially "with a bear", such commercials can be profitable not only to attract " sex speedrunners" and "those who like to try everything", but also to repel unnecessary audience so that there will be less outrage and criticism later, so probably such ads are generally useful for the company.
