I made this argument back when the first mandates were happening. I don't recall any major uproar about seat belts yet for some reason it's a big deal when we do the same thing for masks.
The craziest part of it is to me is that seat belts basically only affect the person wearing it, but masks affect both the person wearing it and the people around them. So if anything it makes more sense for masks to be mandated over seat belts.
And not just seat belts, we already mandate clothing in the form of public exposure/indecency laws. And that doesn't even have any tangible effect on anything. Technically we could all be running around naked but I don't see any uproar about that either. I can at least somewhat understand wanting freedom and/or autonomy but the people complaining aren't even consistent about it.
I guess that happens if you also miss the second possible encounter.
Very Minor Spoiler
For me Lae'zel was in the north with the Voss and the other Githyanki near the mountain pass entrance past the inn. The place with the cutscene where the dragon destroys the bridge. It didn't really make any sense for her to be there and the dialogue plays out as if she is in your party so it is pretty odd. I can see how you could miss it if you went to Act 2 through Grymforge and never went through the mountain pass, or came back to it later and time already passed.