I think AWAM had a strong and clear tendency towards incest from the very beginning. Some might not have noticed that, because L&P started the story extremely slowly, but it was clear from the beginning that this would be a big focus. This already starts with the car scene from the introduction, in which Ellie clearly accuses Dylan of what will later become his main occupation. I don't see any problem there, after all, the title "A wife and mother" for a porn game alone is a clear and unambiguous indication for the content people can expect. Ultimately, I'll maintain that there can't be too much Dylan, Ellie, and Liam content, since they belong to core family. This is what the game should be about and what i consider the original.All of this has logic to it. I say this despite the concept having no immediate appeal to myself, although I do think that Liam has become an average oedipal teen porn stereotype & could be utilised in a better way. Who knows, it could even be the case that focussing on the immediate family is the way the Dev plans to take AWAM forward on Steam, or even 'speed up' development.
On the other hand, L&P launched a multi-faceted erotic story containing many plot-lines & sub-plots, with a title that proclaimed only one cast member could be the MC. There seemed to be something for everybody & the wide-ranging series of characters & events neatly pushed back the boundaries of the close family found in other games of this type.
It was when story-lines began to overlap, characters proliferated & kinks became duplicated, (including 3 distinct strands of incest), that AWAM began to sprawl & get out of hand. I've stated my view before that I believe that it was easier to continuously introduce new characters & scenarios, than it was to tell the main stories. None of this need have mattered so much, (if at all), had the pace of development been faster. Indeed, it could even have been used to advantage, if more consequences had ensued from people & plots that in practice ended up as dead ends, with the whole project moving at a snail's pace. I agree that's where much work & time were wasted but I'll maintain this didn't have to be the case.
Once introduced, sundry secondary characters & plots caught the interest of followers, to the extent that calls to officially abandon any of them generate controversy & disappointment. As an example, using only my own POV, I agree with the general superfluousness of much of the cast list & sub-plots you mention but by no means all. We all have our favourites, or in my own case, I did, until AWAM became a story concerned mainly with Sophia's regression to a teenaged mindset & how to progress her incest. Especially problematic IMO, are the side jobs & I also found the gun episode strange. This latter incident, however, has the caveat that the thugs are set to return, (it seems probably in the 2040s?), seeking revenge? Again, it's the Dev's practice of leaving loose ends which may or may not be progressed, decades from now. Questions of whether this is any way to tell a story are always likely to occur, for me anyway.
Many of the secondary characters & sub-plots have effectively been written out IMO. Lack of communication ensures that fans don't really know which ones but in the case of, e.g. Nathalie, not due back until 2035, we can have a good guess & who now remembers Alyssa? I also think that having constructed the Aiden task plot & progressed it smoothly, even including a get-out for fans who didn't like blackmail, (I'd like more of those for other kinks), it has been put on hold for 6 years, (which would be an effective write-out if this were a true soap opera), having suffered from a needless, unrealistic, immersion breaking & disruptive scene at the gang HQ. I wonder if he'll be back.
It used to be the case that criticism of any kind would draw fanboy comments along the lines of, "Stick to your vision Dev," "Ignore the haters," etc. I am no hater. Hate is a powerful emotion not to be wasted on ephemeral average teen porn. There are times though that I do wish the Dev had stuck to his vision....his original one that is.
I also find the respective plot supporting characters important, such as Julia (as Ellie sidekick), Sam (as Dylan's rival), Amber (with Dylan as mirror to Sophia/Sam), Carl (as Liam rival) and Patricia (as ontrast to sophia extreme shyness of the beginning). All these characters are closely intertwined in the story and not only Sophia has to do with them. There are also some good reasons to have more characters in the plot (e.g. Natalie) if only they were more involved (not only with Sophia) and give more depth to the story. Aiden is one example for this, if he would not be so unbelievable as a villain and maybe has some more lines with charaters like Dylan etc. This also adds depth to the game. What I find totally nonsensical are story elements like the thugs or the old guys, who otherwise have zero connection to the story. L&P could easily remove half of the characters and the game would be better than before. Also, L&P should ask themselves how many classes the game really needs. Aiden's art class was just superfluous, considering Sophia has already class to teach, Dylan is active in a soccer team and Ellie has her dance group. Those are more than enough groups.