I actually woke up with thoughts of this story in my head this morning.

Since you neatly skirted around a near-pointless trip to Denerim, we haven't seen how Alistair deals with Goldanna yet. With a clan at his back, his desperate need for family should be somewhat sated, which could make his interactions with her very different from what we see in-game.

And with a family and their approval already in-place, I wonder if he doesn't find a way to "self-harden" and take control of his own fate, along the way.