Like most hyperbole this is an absurd statement. It's one thing to say that combat effectiveness is not the most relevant aspect in assessing the worth of a follower (which is debatable), it's quite another to say that it simply doesn't matter at all.
I have never in a hundred million years been accused of such hyperbole!
Really though, I don't like my followers to engage in combat. I play sneaky, with a lot of tactical manipulation, and they don't mesh well with that style. Also, when they kill something, that's experience I don't get. I prefer them to stay well clear until the killing is done. They're mainly there to pick locks and carry stuff. In your screencap, you have Lydia standing over an impressive pile of guards' bodies. If I wanted to kill that many guards, I would prefer to sneak, ready a dagger, figure out sightlines, hiding spots, wait until just the right moment, then slit the first's throat. Wait til things calm down, slit the second, then third, etc. It might take me half an hour or more to get them all, but it would be far more fun for me than watching someone else just cut them apart with a sword, however effectively they may do so. For me, it's not at all hyperbolic that combat ability is completely unimportant. I will accept recrimination for failing to add that "for me" in my earlier posts, but I often assume that is taken as read, given the nature of the game, and I tend to read it into others' statements as well. So when I see someone say, for example, "Mjoll is the best follower" I silently add "for me" to the statement, and it's not possible to argue against that, because I don't know what this person values in a companion, or how they play, or what RP they've assigned to their character or potential followers, or anything else. It's entirely a matter of taste, and "in matters of taste there is no discussion."
You've made it clear that you really like Lydia and have a particular interpretation of her character. Your interpretation is obviously completely valid, but I disagree that it is, or even can be, the only correct interpretation of Lydia's character. There's nothing objective about it at all. The RP belongs to each of us, and we all can imagine in any kind of personality we want. I can insert a personality completely and totally unsubstantiated by anything in the game and just say she's dissimulating to hide her true motives, and that's as valid as any other interpretation. I, and I suppose many others, have locked in on the line of Lydia's dialogue you mentioned. It's the one we hear the most often, so why not? I can figure that her other lines are more measured because she has a strong sense of duty and obligation, and masks her displeasure with her current assigment most of the time. But it occasionally slips out in things she says most frequently and spontaneously. It's an interpretation of her character that I find amusing and that I have a lot of fun with. And since it's a game, whichever way I play it that is the most fun is the "right" way. The most fun for me, that is.
