You can't change companion weapons or armour

There are no squad mates in mp though, unless your point is that they made them trivial due to them not being present in mp. 

What does the MP has to do with this?

Stripped down "Streamlined" game features and mechanics to make for faster, more exciting MP rounds.

Makes no sense....

Not being able to change outfits is one thing. A thing I could easily get over. But we can't fucking change their weapons? I mean I get in ME2 and ME3, Squaddies were locked into certain weapon types, like Heavy Pistols and SMG for Liara, but you could still change out the type of pistol and smgs she used. Who's idea was it to give us the most in depth customization for any of the Mass Effect games, but then somewhere along the line they figured we wouldn't want to do that for our squad. 

There has to be something we're missing here. I mean how is their weapon DPS gonna scale later on in the game? Do they scale with their level? I mean I'm hyped for the game, but this is a bullshit change. No Bioware game has ever done this. Even in DA2 you were able to change their weapons.

That's "next generation Bioware" RPG gaming for you. 

Next generation Bioware game = Mainstreamed dumbed down game with diversity quotas for characters and romances. 

Sure, tonnes of crafting opportunities for things my PC will never use, and that will never then see the light of day in any given playthrough because I can't pass them on to squadmates that could make use of them. I'd still take some minor customisation over no customisation at all. Those who find it too taxing need not bother, but at least those who want the feature would have access to it.

I think I'm the most peeved about the appearances. Having PeeBee wandering around with her little jacket and exposed midriff on a volcano world or on a planet bathed in radiation doesn't fly with me. It's a silly art design decision. If they wanted to go with an 'iconic' look, they should have gone with something that made sense in the context of space/hazardous environment exploration, or at least offered the option of equipping something practical.

I won't argue with you about streamlining squad mate customization, though it's not as if recent Mass Effect's have given us much versatility in that regard, and I don't recall any Mass Effect having squad mate customization that actually made a perceivable difference in combat. They only ever amounted to an extra smidge of DPS and a few more power slots. "Tactics," however, is being used like yet another buzzword  in the vein of "RPG elements," in that it really just means "things I like." Pausing and access to squad powers usage has been lost, yet now we a jetpack, sustained abilities, and profiles. We don't have less tactics we have different tactics, and quite honestly, I'll take verticality over most "RPG" enhancements.

And honestly, you can't genuinely believe that an unarmed Tempest and Nomad is evidence of streamlining. We haven't had a vehicle for the past two games at all (ignoring DLC), and the Normandy was never actually used in gameplay, what was there to streamline?

You're trying so desperately to weave a narrative here, when there's really no need to. Anything's gonna look like shit if you keep dragging every little nit pick into your grand conspiracy.

That was confirmed.

Figured.

Still this is unbelievably dumb on their part. Bioware has always amazed me in the past few years over how much they can drop the ball on certain elements of their games. Sounds like this will be a big one for ME:A. These developers have the blueprints on what works and what doesn't work in their games. Hell it can be argued that in terms of interacting with fans during development, Bioware does it more than most companies. They KNOW what we like and don't like. There has NEVER been any indication from fans that we want less customization for squadmates. If anything, we've always called for more customization. 

I rarely use this word these days, but this is an absolutely retarded decision, and as much as I'm excited for this game, they deserve to be criticized hard on this one. A game this large and vast, with the amount of customization it has, it's going to feel so jarring that we can customize our armor, skills, profile, Nexus, weapons, and even the damn Nomad, but we can't customize our Squadmates weapons and armor. Their excuse is total bullshit too. The weapons our squad in ME1-3 didn't give them their personality. Their personality gave them their personality.

Idiots.

Well shit. They did a decent job trying to burry this between news. Just now catching this.

Was kinda hoping it would be like ME2 and 3 being able to pick between 2 outfits.

Did changing their outfits and weapons do a lot in ME2-3? The devs said their weapon damage will scale with PC level. So you don't have to worry about their weapons being underpowered.