You can't change companion weapons or armour

Probably will be an alternate appearance pack like the others in previous games if not available in the base game via patch or freeLC.

I don't think it's too big a deal. From a gameplay perspective the only meaningful factor armor provided was it's stats. But now they allow you to affect the character stats in different ways. So armor is not really relevant to gameplay anymore. Different types of weapons also differed by stats. But here they are letting you upgrade the companions default weapon stats instead of making you get the stats by getting different weapons. Since upgrading one weapon over and over should have the same affect as simply buying better ones I don't think that new guns for companions will be relevant to gameplay either.

So the only real downside to this is that players may not be able to make their characters look the way they want which I think is unfortunate. I guess they want the companions in their games to seem more independent than they have in previous games so they don't let you change things that a living, breathing person would be able to change themselves. The problem though is that the characters may not want to change at all which could get a little stale but we'll see.

This isn't a huge leap from the ability to select bonus abilities in NG+. I say my Shepard is a Vanguard, but in ME1, she was a soldier that had Throw as her bonus power, basically making a makeshift Vanguard that could use every weapon in the game. 

Sad to see this I always enjoyed giving certain squad members cool looking weapons I didn't want to use myself. For instance I always gave garrus the mattock because it looked cool on him and I felt a single shot rifle was more towards his combat style.

If we had more skill slots it'd be nice to see a Ryder specific tree where you had biotic abilities that complimented your class if you didn't decide to focus biotics (or strengthened them if you did). So at least then it's not "well I have biotics but I don't use them ever for reasons~" but more you'd rather use guns. (We all sentinels now pretty much )

Then I'd appreciate it if you'd stop shoving words in my mouth thanks.

And my complaint was about both switching between set armors and set weapon types.

And I never said you could do that so your point?

I actually prefer this approach. The weapons and armours in DAI just didn't look very good. I prefer the visual;ly appealing approach in DA2, ME2 and ME3.

I think it's hit or miss. Isabella running around Kirkwall with no pants was a bit strange, but to each their own. Jack running around in nothing but cargo pants and straps in space was... well, it was completely ridiculous, unrealistic, and... just baffling.  Me, I prefer having more options. I thought DAI did a great job allowing equipment versatility while maintaining a unique profile for each character. I think that should be the benchmark.

I forgot about this. There's no real excuse to have weapons change in cutscenes when the character is scripted to only have a specific loadout. 

Wow, really? Not able to change squad weapons is just bad. I feel like outfits will be a DLC thing again for BioWare points  

Energy drain was actually my go-to bonus power for my Vanguard Shep in ME2 and 3 as a result of that.

Aye, one need only browse the old BSN for a matter of minutes to understand that visual customisation is hugely important to many people, myself included. To have it outright removed, in the manner of the shit show that was DA2, is super disappointing.