[DAV ALL SPOILERS] Romance between companions

I just finished the game this weekend and, overall enjoyed it a lot, even if it's not a 10/10. Most of its flaws are not deal-breakers for me, or I can at least understand why they're there. Except for one: the way romance between companions are handled.

In theory it's nice, your companion's lives don't entirely revolve around Rook, and they can get together if not romanced. However, the implementation is atrocious.

Companions start flirting with each other right away, even if Rook has expressed interest in one of them, and having couples together in the party makes Rook feel like an awkward 3rd wheel. I don't known about most people, but I like some escapism in my games, and awkwardly 3rd wheeling my friends or having to watch my crush flirt with someone else is definitely not it. Many people have mentioned it, but blocking companion romance scenes and banter until Rook has locked in a romance, would be a massive improvement of the player experience.

The issue is made worse because of how little romance content there is in the game. It is already frustrating to have only a couple unique scenes with your LI, but to then find out they have more unique content with another character is even worse. At the end of the day, I paid for the game for MY own entertainment, not to watch the writers' animated fanfic.

In a game so plagued by direction changes, development struggles and with so many cut corners in terms of content and story, it is especially annoying seeing how much fleshed out companion romances are over other things. I would rather that money had gone to giving Rook more personality, developing their relationship with NPCs, or fleshing out the main romances.

NPC romances are very challenging to do well, and a minimalistic approach tends to work best (Dorian & Bull in DAI, easily ignored/prevented if you didn't like them together). Non-romanceable NPC couples are much more enjoyable, I loved Antoine/Evka and Teia/Viago (and would happily accept to be their third if they're feeling adventurous), but having to sit through Harding/Taash scenes when Lucanis is barely paying attention to my poor Rook, or playing 3rd wheel to his and Neve's banter... Sorry, not my idea of a good time.

(That's why companion conflict is better, no one enjoys third-wheeling, but we're all bringing the popcorn out to whatch the drama)