Yes, I admit there are a lot of inconsistencies in the story. For my part I can't believe that either of them wouldn't take a 30 minute train ride to see the other when they were apart. The thing in the story that shocks me the most is that when they talk things out, neither of them admits to what happened with the MC, actually I think they don't discuss him at all. And that's the most telling thing about the way they feel.
They don't discuss the MC, but I'm not sure why you take that as an indication that they care more about each other than him. To me it indicates the opposite: they're more concerned about losing their last shot at the MC than they are about repairing a healthy relationship with each other. Between their reluctance to address their poor communication on their own and their almost pathetic inability to move on from the MC
EVEN AFTER THEY REJECT HIM, it's hard to see the MC as a second banana here.
IMHO what we needed in Episode 4 was for the MC to spend less time sulking about avoiding the girls and more time talking to each of them one-on-one. That would lessen the 'sting' of the Episode 3 cliffhanger, but it would also keep the drama at manageable levels and give us the much needed chance to finally explore the hidden bits of Maya and Josy's backstory.
That would in turn give them time to earn some forgiveness from the player or, failing that, at least establish clearly why the MC is willing to forgive them and move on in some fashion; the exact fashion being determined by the choices made with each girl throughout the episode. In this scenario it would provide far more meaning to the 'Stay friends/try for something more' decision at the end because we would not only be more invested in the friendship, we'd also have a much clearer understanding of what each choice meant.
The problem with my scenario, I suspect, is that a) it would probably double the size of the episode, and b) it would make it much harder for those who choose M&J to continue participating in the rest of the game (since they've clearly already made their choice).
You could solve that by splitting the episode up and postponing the decision to try for something more (a popular example would be to have all three agree to start over as friends and see where it leads), giving DPC time for the other LI relationships to catch up. But that in turn has the problem that it feels like a cop-out after ending Episode 3 on that cliffhanger. It would also make for a much more ambiguous end to the first season (and thus run the risk of annoying Steam players who must wait a long time for the next update).
Really, the root of the problem is that DPC has a sweet tooth for drama and tried to crank it up too early in the story. If he expected this to go for 12+ episodes, he shouldn't have planned the major revelation about 40% of his LIs for Epsiode 4. He was right that the secret of Maya and Josy needed to be revealed soon, but he was unwilling to settle for the ordinary helping of drama that would have provided.
So he went all in on the sense of shock and betrayal to maximize the feels, only to belatedly realize he had no way to properly dissipate the emotions he caused. He'd painted himself into a corner. He eventually decided to just sprint over the paint as fast as possible and hope no one noticed.
Well, we did. But it's water under the bridge now. If Episode 6 finally goes back to finish up the corner (and maybe sand down the worst of the footprints while it's at it), at least we might finally be able to move on.
