My thoughts on the changes to characters due to feedback is that softening the characters to be more likeable--even though anyone with patience would know that characters have development and would soften over time if they liked Tav--is that it was a mistake. I still like SH, Lae'zel, and Wyll, but with SH and Wyll especially their changes made them feel less dynamic IMO. Something I admire about Bioware and Owlcat is they know who their characters are and allow them to be polarizing. Characters like Aribeth (NWN) Solas (Dragon Age), and Yrliet (Rogue Trader), for example, make some players want to kill them and some players adore them. And that's okay! One way or another, they're memorable.
Like I said, I do like the BG3 companions, and I think there's a place for feedback. However, I think feedback can ultimately weaken creative vision when it waters a character down in an effort for mass appeal. It's also weird to me that Larian and/or WotC was so concerned with making their companions likeable but on the flip side, completely butchered Viconia and Sarevok from BG2 in an effort to make them utterly unlikable. It feels like manipulation and I don't like being manipulated. Let a character be who they are and I'll make up my own mind.
