"Kiss your plot goodbye. Here's loyalty quests and non-important companions!" paraphrased: Mike Gamb

I don't see him confirming the companions are not plot-integral. All this says is that the loyalty missions will focus on a single character, which is obvious, and that just the loyalty missions are not part of the critical path. That's a good thing in my opinion since the loyalty missions being part of the main path is one of the things that hurt the ME2 plot the most since it couldn't focus on the Collectors nearly as much. 

You are right about there not being scenarios like what you mention, but we already knew that since they tweeted than none of our squadmates die. If anything that means they will be more tied to the story since there aren't variables to consider, leaving them less involved like in ME3. 

I don't see the problem with this.

Personally, I think that the best companion quest in the Mass Effect trilogy is Mordin's. While it did end up being a lead-in to the genophage plot to come in ME3, it had nothing to do with the Collector plot of ME2.

All he's saying as far as I can see is that during the main quest, companions will have to share the spotlight with the protagonist, other companions, the villains, the plot and so forth, whereas loyalty missions are the time when they get to be the star for a mission.

Virmire in ME1 isn't about just Wrex or just Ashley or just Kaidan, its about all three of them and Saren and Sovereign and Shepard.

I'd be more worried about their being any actual interesting side characters then whether or not their tide to the story. So far we have barely seen any that match up with characters like Edi,Thane,and Javik

i see 'spotlight' as meaning a part in the story where it's central to just that character.
it's not to say that a character won't influence the story at all, just that the story, as a whole, won't centrally be about that character, aside from their loyalty mission.

It occurs to me that if they are right about each squaddie having a lot of dialog and with seven companions they will have to do more outsidetheir loyalty missions

So next time, instead of having an instant knee jerk reaction, how about you sit back, analyse what was said and form your conclusions afterwards? You've already said that it was this kind of reaction that got you banned from Neogaf.

Like DA 2.  

I wonder what they will be about though since none of them will be in familiar terratory so most likely not about family!?

I agree.  It does kind'a suck.   But you have to look at their side of it.   This is their first Mass Effect game after what was only supposed to be one game, which turned into a trilogy although it was always planned as such.   I have a feeling that they don't wanna have to spend X amount of dollars on lines that 99% of people will never even hear.  

I'm glad there's going to be loyalty missions to get to know the companions better.
I'm worried though by the completely optional nature.
Not only does that mean the threat of death(virmire/suicide mission) is gone but also leaves em fearful that loyalty will be a notion devoid of consequence.

You are extrapolating from a statement very far indeed. Extrapolation like that is not reliable and prone to severe errors, so watch out for that. Predicting that the game will suck based on some random words from a developer. Also, I don't see what's wrong in that statement from Mike, it seem to me very generic and not interesting.