The voice actor and the way he carried the jokes instantly made him one of my favourites, but I can see where you're coming from with the railroaded conversation.
His need to consume magical artefacts isn't optional. It needs to be taken care of in Act 1, where you're already relatively poor/unable to sustain his needs. Unlike Karlach, who is also a ticking time bomb, her story is far more forgiving, with the only real requirement to make sure Dammon is alive to fix her up.
It would've been nice to have more ways to "fix him" besides the choices forced upon us, like Elminster popping up and forcing another decision on us.
I'm at the start of act 3 so I don't know how his story ends, but I hope we get more options to round out the story