I did play Mass Effect series! I think the paragon/renegade system worked well for the thematic goals of the series. I think it's fun to have games where you are rewarded for being a bastard, but reducing morality down to a binary reward system obviously limits nuance in storytelling. For what it is, I'm a fan. I think the designers had an intentional playthrough pathing of (the player will do a good guy playthrough- then a bad guy one) and that system helps support that. For more artistic works though (like what I'm hoping to build) I think it would be a disastrous design decision.