Again. Why are you arguing against 6 member party? How does it hurt you?
You can argue all day long that party is 4-6 members, but regardless, they have the ability to do 6, it's in the game, and all they have to do is lift the restriction for the rest of it to make us happy. So why resist? Why argue?
It's not that simple. Larian would also need to balance encounters around a 6 character party. It would also make balancing Larian's new Lone Wolf-style homebrew for BG3 a disgusting nightmare. Combat will either become more sloggish (especially if Larian implement reactions in a proper way) or too easy, there will be more inventory management (and for many players that is not fun, for example I find equipment managment for anyone but my main character boring and tedious), the gameplay will shift from an RPG to a tactical strategy like X-COM. There is a reason why so many modern RPGs shifted to a 3-4 person party, it is a perfect compromise for different kind of players.
Originally Posted by Try2Handing
Apparently some players actually dislike having to handle a 6-person party and prefer 4-person. For whatever reason. And also apparently it's not ok for other players to have different preferences.
Some people prefer 1-2 person party, but can deal with a 4-party as a compromise and understand the need for such compromise.
Originally Posted by Tuco
Let me word it in this way: NO game should EVER deliberately withold content from the player exclusively with the goal of "encouraging multiple playthroughs". Which is a bullshit goal, anyway. I will play the game multiple times over the years if I enjoy the moment-to-moment experience, not if I'm forced "to go at it three times to see all the companions". Hell, chances are even at subsequent playthrough I may decide to exclude mostly the same companions for similar reasons.
I played BG2 from start to finish something like 7-8 times over the years and there were character I simply never cared enough to bring along, as there were some other that it pained me to leave out no matter having a larger party or having already played with them.
Being limited in content by who you can group with is akin to being limited in content by making choices in quests that exclude you from other quests. Like doing Thieve's Guild path to get to the Asylum in BG2 excludes you from doing Vampire path to get to said Asylum. There's nothing wrong with that. Wanting more while ignoring deliberating consequences for other players is just selfish and greedy.