Tbf the game is stupid easy to break, get the knuckles dusters and you can start steamrolling till you get the bonk bat or katana, or just train a bit under Hannah till you get the perk and start beating the crap out of everyone with these hands (even more stupid strong if you are an animal morph into anything with bonus to physical, very especially a Tiger which has 35 natural physique bonus and 25% physic and unnamed damage bonus, and let's not talk about the Dragons)
I do think a companion system could work but it would need the combat to revamp which will likely never happen, I think a good compromise would be having specific companions rather than allowing anyone become a companion with maybe a maximum party of 4 or 5 (including you, so 3/4 companions), for instance you could pay up the Dobermans and Rat bounty hunters to follow you around, or maybe even get Brax to follow you around if you bought him, so forth so forth.