Alright, let me clarify something a bit. There are legitimate reasons why certain types of characters exist. Especially from a design standpoint. The reasons some of these exist is largely dependent on setting and atmosphere. Though, there are good player reasons for doing some of these.
Let's start with "silent protagonist/characters". The reason these exist in any game is very simple. The very specific reason these were ever invented is so that players would more easily put themselves into the position of the hero. You are Chrono, Master Chief, the guy in Bioshock, Link, etcetera. Silent characters exist for the same reason. They allow you to fill in the storylines/personalities of the characters or the protagonist yourself. It's a dual-edged sword though. While this can be good for immersion, it can be terrible for storytelling. The silence is even emphasized if you have characters talking to you and you do not even pick an option to respond. It can be fairly distracting if you have a lot of NPCs talking to you, but you never respond back because you're a silent protagonist. Games like The Elder Scrolls take care of this by providing you "dialogue options", which you never actually speak. Because of that, you don't notice the whole "my character never talks" thing all that much. Meanwhile, in games like Half-Life, you notice that Gordon Freeman is basically a mute. He doesn't even nod or shake his head. He's like a silent automaton and it's kind of unsettling when you've spent several hours playing him in a game and he's the most alien thing you run across (everything else makes a lot more noise than he does!). Then, you run into the "mixed responses" type thing of Samus Aran. In some games she delivers dialogue, in others she's a silent badass. In "Other M", it actually becomes detrimental to the storyline that she speaks at all.
Let's move on to your talkative protagonist. If he/she talks, then there's no issue. However, you are going to need to define their speech, personality, and mannerisms fairly quickly. The downside to doing this is that players may end up playing as a character they just don't like being (or they can't relate to). If it's a game where the people (or things or what-have-you) do not have their own speech, personality, or mannerisms and they wait for the player to define it, it's not such a big deal. Unless, of course, they are integral to the plot in some way. Then it becomes a huge detriment to have them be mutes.
The reason most games go with your last option is actually a pretty good one. It's the reason I like best, if we're being honest. The dev teams have a story to tell. It's easiest to tell a story when all your characters are actors in a play (all the world is indeed a stage and we are merely players) do what they're supposed to do. Stories become the most compelling when characters interact with each other, interact with the villains, and have their own personal struggles. The downside of this, of course, is that players may not be able to relate or may not enjoy the storyline.
So, what you need to decide is what exactly you want to do with your game. How do you want it to play? Do you have a story to tell? How immersed do you want your players to be? You need to answer some really serious questions about what kind of game you want to make to start with before you can decide on the best way to have characters and protagonists in the designs of your game.
