I completely agree with your assessment. There are so many points where the characters act or say things that make no sense. When Rook meets Taash, she is in a full blown battle with multiple other Qunari, but Rook and companion just casually walk up and watch. Then Taash says, "oh, who are you?" followed by other nonsensical commentary for that situation.
When Bellara fizpops the crystal in the beginning, Rook asks her what she's doing, and she says just breaking things. She just came from seeing a village devastated by the Blight and has learned two gods are going to destroy the world. Her fizpop is straight out of Mickey Mouse's Sorcerer's Apprentice.
Harding is the biggest disappointment. In DAI, she is a bad **bleep** solo special forces scout. In DAV she's a rookie, not a hardened operator, but a little girl with esteem and confidence issues, always asking Rook if he thinks she can control her new power. Argh!!!! My hero destroyed.
Unfortunately, these are just a few of a very consistent pattern with all NPC interactions. As the OP said, this is a game for kids, this is not a serious Dragon Age game. This is a worse follow up that Andromeda was to Mass Effect.
