I want to address the "the companions are too negative" thing, and point out something that it seems like both Larian and some players failed to realise - this is an opinion. "Too negative" is a completely unmeasurable aspect of the characters. I didn't find them to be too negative at all, and I was kind of a good guy for most of my playthroughs.
Some of them responded in a way you could define as "negative" sometimes, but this is not the question you should ask yourself if you want to make changes to them. What you should ask is whether it's consistent with their character. If it's consistent, then you should ask if that is the kind of character you want in your game. If it isn't, change the character, and if it is, leave it instead of creating inconsistencies that wi only harm the character. But don't leave the character the same while making her less consistent at the same time because it wi only make her a worse character.
