Do you prefer Paragon/Renegade dialogue or DAI-esque dialogue?

I'm afraid you are going to need a time machine if you ever expect BioWare, or any other AAA RPG studio, to make a game with a silent protagonist ever again. Even BGS has made the switch with their most recent outing in Fallout 4, although even I'll admit their execution of a voiced protagonist was less than stellar.

Commander Shepard was a game changer.

That's very likely, given that there are ten races with their own distinct voices to choose from. However, Todd Howard also stated after releasing Fallout 4 that he was interested in continuing to improve on the voiced protagonist idea, so who knows? It could be the first main line TES game to feature a voiced protagonist. BGS might even limit our choice in race depending on what the story is and what is happening in Tamriel. Honestly, I wouldn't put anything past BGS.

I think people are confusing the actual DAI system with the choices implemented in said system. In itself, DAI has a four tone options system with no morality scale that unlocks persuasion options. Based on that, I prefer this one over ME's.
Granted, I do prefer a wider variety in the options compared to DAI's, but this is a separate issue.

As long as the job gets done, i don't care about the rest.

Was there really more options with Dragon Age: Origins? I remember aside from the rare occasion there being at most six options for a dialogue option and most of those would fall under the "Investigate" option on the middle left of the dialogue wheel for you would cycle back to the first screen.  I don't see how seeing every word your character is going to say helps either, I had Morrigan leave once because I thought I was presenting what was written one way and it was more sarcastic then I intended it to me so it was not very informative either.  BioWare has been getting much better since the first implementation of the dialogue wheel and with Inquisition I would say almost the entire game all my dialogue options came out exactly as I had planned.

I actually remember doing a playthrough of origins after this "Only 3-4 options!" hoopla cropped up over DA2.

And lo and behold, very rarely did the options in a DAO dialogue exceed 3-4. When it did, it was usually investigation type stuff.

Hmm... I thought the pissed-off lines were easy to spot. They're always in the lower right position.

I thought BioWare did a rather respectable job of determining tone with the icons next to the choices. The main problem I had was that rarely did any of those varying choices really have any different outcomes. Because Mass Effect really only had two choices (occasionally a neutral one), BioWare was able to design the game to show to divergent paths that truly felt unique and satisfying. Whereas with DAI, I just felt as if a lot of my options were pointless fluff that didn't really matter. It's nice having a bit more direction over what your character says, but is also somewhat meaningless if the choice inevitably doesn't matter.

MEA is using the DAI dialogue system, so you shouldn't have to worry about a lack of options. The question is whether or not most of those options will actually even matter.

That's perfectly fine. I don't mind gossip, when it's appropriate. What I don't like is when most of the dialogue in the game could be construed as pointless gossip with little impact. There came across as a serious lack of player choice in DAI. Yes, there was some choice. However, the game felt far more constrained than what is usual for a BioWare game. Honestly, the most "impact" I had in DAI was because of Dragon Age Keep by importing the two previous games.

Impact is whether your choices actually had a tangible effect on the context of the situation. Oftentimes, dialogue rarely had any kind of impact. Most of the "choices" either came from judgments, which were trivial, arguably the War Table, which was a time sink mini game, and the occasional big choice that revolved around the plot (support mages or templars, support the empress or the usurper, etc.).

I think I'd actually enjoy the approval system more if your companions would verbally react to your decisions, instead of just seeing an arbitrary rating stating "Cassandra greatly disapproves." I still don't know how much that exactly is and how much it undermines a "Cassandra slightly approves" decision. Having the companions just verbalize their displeasure or happiness would make that entire system far more useful.