Larian's character writing has never been very interesting to me - I'm not sure what it is, perhaps there's a showiness to them that feels shallow. It doesn't help that their back stories are almost always "supercool world-shaker who had a More Interesting Adventure than this... Level 1", as that always starts them off on the back foot with me for entirely petty reasons.

By contrast with various other games, perhaps their character backstories and the talk they inspire are less about "the cool things I did and their Dark Consequences that now directly affect you" and more about life events that exist outside the Plot?

Eh, I'm probably remembering things a bit rosily...and, uh, I forgot that I was originally trying to say something about their appeal rather than just rambling.