You can't change companion weapons or armour

Not unless the dev was really expressing himself badly. If that was the case I think he would have corrected himself by now.

Well that would at least be a problem in description since Templar armor looks way different from Tevinter styled armor...

But if you put Templar armor on Cassandra, BlackWall, or a human Inquisitor, it does (and should) look different, though still carrying a Templar theme.

That's actually one feature of the DAI armors that I really disliked.  It makes no sense whatsoever that the same piece of armor would look different on Cassandra than it did on a human female Inky.

Oh so we're stuck with PeeBee's default appearance. I wasn't harsh on it because I thought there would be (at the very least ) one or two alternative outfits. You know some proper armour that looked like it belonged to a planetary exploration team member.

I mean a bunch of designers sat down and knew a character was going to be traversing inhospitable worlds, exposed to space and engaging in frequent combat. They knew at some point she'd only have one outfit. But they still thought: "A jacket and some boots will suffice. A face mask is protection enough."

Guess we can expect alternate outfits as DLC now.

If you take one outfit off of the Inquisitor, then put it directly onto Cassandra or Blackwall, the outfit changed without visiting a forge or an armorsmith or even pulling out a freaking hammer.

I certainly didn't MIND so much, 'cause the different looks were neat, but it actually makes no sense whatsoever.

And basically, it's playing dress-up dolls with video game characters, a fact I acknowledge is kinda silly even though in many ways I like the option.  I'm MUCH more annoyed by the no-helmet thing we've got going on.  Even if I couldn't control their outfits, having a casual outfit and an armored outfit would go a long way towards promoting versimilitude.

Not a game breaker for me, but definitely a "Really, Bioware?  REALLY?!"

Um, you're not catching what I'm saying.  Out in the field, away from civilization.  Take outfit off Inky, put it on Cassandra, suddenly it's a whole new freaking outfit.

Absolutely absurd.

Could this mean they change their own Armor and guns at key points in the story? Kinda like the ME2 loyalty outfits but you dont get the choice....maybe they dont change if you get the loyalty mission wrong or something

Look switching doesn't make sense, but if we start talking about "sense" RPG progression falls apart anyway. Pass.

Even if a visit to the smith were involved, it still doesn't explain the extreme differences in appearance.  Minor tweaks could be made, but the only explanation for the in-game alterations is that the gear was completely broken down to base materials and an entirely new suit of armor built from them.

ETA:  Part of the issue I have with this "iconic" BS is that I'd think characters involved in world-threatening events would have more important things to worry about than "I-refuse-to-wear-anything-that-does-not-reflect-my-own-personna-and-tastes".

If you want to head-canon that some random trip to a smith was taken (when we have to visit the smith ourselves to forge the damned thing in the first place) it's your game and your opinion.  However, if you need to visit the forge in the first place to have an item smithed, then NOT need to visit it to "modify" it for a different character, then the game mechanics are at odds with each other and it borders on the absurd.

I'm fine with you ignoring the absurdity of it to maintain a level of internal consistency that the game lacks as implemented, and to be perfectly frank, I don't give two shits that it's absurd.  I won't do anything so silly as walk back to the blacksmith to "have it forged anew," but in my opinion, it's a quirky, absurd mechanic that absolutely in no way detracts from my enjoyment of the game.

It's consistent with other games, however. Not really that quirky. Take Skyrim for example. Forge some armor, put it on your male protag it looks one way, then take it off and put it on a female follower - now it has a boob breastplate.

It's nothing new, I'm surprised anybody complains about it.