Hopefully you’ll gain friends and contacts who can come with you in certain situations, but in games where you have a companion who is with you 24/7 and does exactly everything you ask with no mind of his own… those always take me out from the game, and the whole having-a-companion thing. I want them to feel realistic, to not always have time to go with you, to have opinions of their own towards certain choices you make on your travels. And most of all, I don’t want them to walk just right behind me or just stand completely still, like in Bethesda games.
Like for example, you could be told to go with a handful of men to some place, you could talk to them and you could befriend them (you might not befriend them all, depending on who you choose to like and make him like you back.) These guys would not be able to be “hired” as constant followers to your “party”. But you might rise in the ranks and later on ask them to come with you on certain missions, since you know them and can vouch for them to the lord who gave you your mission. When the mission is over, they might go home or back to their duties. You could ask them to come with you on another mission you have active, but they might respectfully decline… or disrespectfully decline, if you solved the mission in a way they do not agree with (like, a lord want you to burn down a village that is supplying enemies with resources - some soldiers you have befriended are ok with doing that, and some are not. The ones who are not ok will still have to follow orders, but they’ve lost the respect for you.)
As such, they’d have wills of their own, and other duties to attend to than following you around as you ride around and appreciate the scenery.