In Dragon Age 2, can I safely sell all junk

According to the Dragon Age Wiki, it sounds like the character that dies is based on Hawke's class. This is probably to aid in giving the player a balanced party without too many redundant classes.

I, too, had issues with this. It wasn't terrible, though. It may be possible in the settings.ini file, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

I would keep checking the mod forum for Dragon Age II on the Bioware Community site, and Dragon Age Nexus for a mod like this. I did however find a mod for DA2 which makes it so you don't have to always hold down the TAB button to see items on the ground (here). It should make your life reasonably better until then.

I just finished a 30+ hour trek of the game. It was amazing, but short. Just gotta wait for that expansion now!