Yeah, that's something I'm learning too! Makes me wonder if I would have been disappointed with DA:O if I had followed its development since I know loads of stuff was cut and changed during the 6 years it was being made. Even with DA2, I wasn't keen on it at first but it grew on me fairly quickly and I wasn't around for it's development either so I don't know what they promised from that one.
Sadly, yeah. It's normal. Not just for things to get cut, but for content to change. I bet if you'd been following DA:O's development you would've been like "Aw, I was really looking forward to that human commoner play through, etc ..." On the plus side, no guest Cullen in Origins eventually led to all the glorious Cullen content we got in the two games that followed 
Even though I would have loved more story scenes with everyone, there's really a huge amount of content in this game. I haven't played Skyrim yet, but I'm positive that when I do it will feel lacking in that aspect for me. I'm sure I'll enjoy it, but it's just a feeling I have. At least we'll be sure to get what I hope will be substantial DLC for this game.