Actually I think a character creation is a good thing after all.
The main reason for the randomized creation is that the player has to deal with what he gets. It makes the game more difficult and interesting, gameplay-wise.
But I don’t think the a character creation eliminates that. I don’t have to use it to start with 3 Raider/Sellswords. I could also start with 3 beggars, if I believe this to be more interesting and entertaining.
Also this is pretty much a sandbox game. People will want to experiment around with different founding members. Let them, I’d say.