Give more personal to character story
Those choices determine what instances you do in the early going. They were never meant to be long term solutions to the character. However, they would aid in RPing.
What you’re really asking for is Anet to write different stuff for different people throughout the game. But that’s really your job as an RPers (someone playing an RPG).
If I chose the raven spirit, my character would react to the world with that set of “lenses” on for lack of a better term. It would absolutely change the way the character played for me.
So the choices make a difference in what you experience early on and hopefully, you can take the reins from there and become more vested in your character.