Here's my theory: he's stuck and he's trying to dig his way out. Whatever the original concept was, the event hasn't worked out. Now he's cobbling something together to compensate for a weak foundation. My gut tells me that he's struggling to advance Dylan's progress without resorting to sexual content. L&P has slow played everything to an extreme degree, but at some point even he knows it doesn't make sense. In the context of the last update, and knowing that Dylan will surpass Sam, how isn't the result in this update sex? I expect some mutual masterbation at minimum, but that's probably still too much for L&P. But how much less can be really give us? He wants plausible deniability by giving us something without giving us too much. But I think he's running out of excuses to keep progress stagnant.
I agree with you. I think he is afraid of taking the next step with Sophia, because even a handjob means that she is now making an active choice that goes beyond the girl's time where she played with Julia's tits.
Once she starts with the handjobs, anything less with the guys (or fingering for the girls) is really a few steps back and likely to impact paying supporters negatively.
Now - he may be seeking inspiration, thinking how to do this, by working on his Steam release... because he does not have to tell us How he is getting past his writer's block, getting out of the corner he has painted himself into.
It seems like we will find out just how Big this issue is with how much time he needs to get past it (how much time he wants to spend on the Steam rework and just chilling).
So I am off to actually enjoy new content from other developers
(Her Desire just came out with another update)!
Cheers!