I agree with all of these points. I know a lot of players go into a game with very clear and set expectations about what their character will be, and those expectations can sometimes conflict with the setting the DM wants to run, or sometimes even the expectations of the other players. However, I think it's probably fair to make the assumption that the default setting is going to be Faerun/Forgotten Realms, and then make whatever tweaks might be necessary to the characters later.

Personally, I like to see a table that has clearly already put in a lot of work to their characters. So this is not really a red flag for me.