Divinity Original Sin 1 let you keep all four companions with you. On my first playthrough, I took Madora and Jahan, and left Wolgraff and Bairdotr to the side, and yet I still completed notable parts of Wolgraff's quest, especially the conclusion even though he hadn't been with me, and I missed out on all his interactions. It felt kinda unsatisfying because I missed out on all the interactions.
I feel as though that's a pretty overly broad claim. We've seen a lot of the flexibility they're trying to implement in the game in other areas. The detail of the world, the implementation of various spells, they're trying to stuff in a hell of a lot. I don't like this choice, I'm not gonna sugar coat it. Maybe it'll turn out fine but this is not the choice I would have wanted them to make. But I don't think it makes them lazy. Even if they're going this route to save money, I'm seeing all the money going into all kinds of other aspects of the game and when you make a choice to save money that you then apply towards making other aspects of a thing better, that's just good money management. They don't have endless resources so even acting under the most cynical assumptions, they're saving money in one area while having proven that they're not shy about spending it in others.
In a way, I appreciate the "developers are just lazy" comments. It's an incredibly easy way for that person to announce to the world:
"I do not work in game development or programming, and I do not understand the concepts of finite budgets or how to allocate resources, but I claim to know better than actual professionals anyway."
It makes it easier to identify ignoramuses and tune their complaints out.
