While tying a plot item to a companion that a player can basically interact however they want was probably a bad idea, it is admirable to see Larian working so hard to roll with player decisions like it's a D&D campaign. It's probably one of the toughest tasks in CRPG design, and I'm excited to see if they can pull it off.
For me - verisimilitude via player freedom/world interaction is pretty huge. Which is why I've always loved Fallout New Vegas more than Fallout 3 (freedom to kill anyone vs. random immortal NPCs). And also why I haven't completely forgiven BG2 for prologue Imoen and Arkanis Gath.
Now, with that said, Macguffins are pretty common in CRPGs, and it's basically accepted that a lot of games simply forces you to acquire it to progress (i.e Bloodlines with the Sarcophagus, a certain portal key for Planescape, and even the Platinum Chip in F:NV). So Larian's decision to try to "organically" give this to you as opposed to just make an eventual mandatory quest of "get the box" is very interesting to me.
