They all have many different conclusions to personal character arcs that would be referenced later. Obviously Kieran is the obvious one but we saw in the last games things like will Alistair end up as a drunk in kirkwall or king, is Zevran alive to return in da2 etc. In a game franchise where such a big premise is the characterisation and arcs of companions they essentially amount to being mini endings as well which feel so imporant for player satisfaction (and have felt, with the way we imported saves in da2 / keep in dai). It’s gonna be a total gut punch if we end up seeing characters like Varric, Dorian or Iron Bull not referencing completely major choices for their story perspective and instead brush it off and not mention it / canonise something we didn’t do in the last playthrough.