"...that people are really talking about two different sorts of followers: nameless spear carriers versus side-kicks."
Agreed. Ars had Companions and Grogs for the two, and 3rd Edtion has something like Cohorts and Followers for the categories. In Ars, it is probaly handled in the most sophisticated and cool way, a bit similar to what Wulf was saying in that Companions really are mini-characters with a bit less description. They usually get no major magic but have the same number of Virtues and Flaws as the main character. Grogs get less than one-third of the Virtues and Flaws and the write-ups are super short. What is also neat is that each category has its own list of roles associated with it, a bit like HW does it for characters when choosing keywords associated with profession.
So, perhaps by having the 'sidekick' type be about 50% as worked out as the main character and the 'spear-carriers' be about 15% as worked out, you get a system where cannon fodder is a bit less common. This is pretty much exactly the way it works in fiction. Think of Xena with Gabrielle as a Companion then various others show-up and might come along for the adventure for 1 to 4 episodes who are often very rough sketches and end up dying or taking off after a while. Also, as in HW, Gabrielle grew in powers as Xena was fleshed out, but in a more sophisticated way then just a percentage of Xena's abilities e.g. she picked up the Sais somewhere along the line.
Interesting topic that hasn't been deeply explored in many RPGs but seems like a natural and has been quite fun in my experience =)
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