There's some truth to this about MC, but he's not exactly a pussy, he's just not smart enough. Seriously, dude dates girls and doesn't care about their last names? While everyone in college knows who Sage and Jill are, our Fuckface stands with huge eyes doing the "FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK" moment.
There is even a remark about this in the story, Quinn in Ep. 6 notices that MC doesn't know how to draw logical conclusions and connect two points together.
Eh. It's more like (and I say this with utmost respect and true appreciation)
DPC isn't smart enough.
Writing is really, really hard. And when we say 'writing' its not even taking into account specific subfields within the overarching concept. There's dialogue writing, descriptive writing, plot writing. world-building and many many more. A good writer is good or good enough (and usually great at least ONE of those things) with enough fields to make things work. Now DPC, is a good-to-great dialogue writer. He's putting out tons of content on a branching story with snappy funny lines, some badass moments, tension, suspense, etc. He's not bad at world-building either, we know what's going on with B and R without being bogged down by tons of info dumps or expository characters. I would even say he's good at plot writing, BUUUUT he has a few glaring flaws, a major one is to rely on contrivances, which are plot or character beats that really only exist so the author can get a story where he wants it to go. These aren't inherently bad things, MC's roommate giving away MC's guitar at the beginning of the story makes NO SENSE (especially in light of his real relationship with Chad), but it's such a minor thing and its the beginning of the story so its not at all a big deal, in fact I would ENCOURAGE writers to use a contrivance here or there to keep the story moving quickly at the beginning.
However, when contrivances are used in larger ways, to solve or create problems, it becomes more of an issue. There is no way the MC wouldn't know Sage's mom is Jade. Someone would have mentioned it, he would have seen them together casually, etc etc. This telenova style twist (another weakness DPC can't seem to give up) doesn't work because its so unrealistic it takes us out of the story. A good middle ground is probably the season 1 twist, where Josy is Maya's girlfriend, it strains credulity, but it doesn't break the suspension of disbelief.
DPC
loves his drama, everybody with a memory and a fire extinguisher knows that. He mostly executes that drama via narrative twists, which tend to flip the status quo on its head. It's an effective tool, but its not the only tool. Which is a problem many amatuer writers run into, using a twist where it doesn't help the story. The biggest problem with twist heavy writing is that it tends to back end load the story, to the point where it overshadows everything that comes before. If I were to bring up the film The Sixth Sense, no one really thinks about the horror elements, the drama elements, we think about the ending, and only the ending. Which is acceptable in a short media (a two hour film), but doesn't always serve the greater narrative of a twenty hour video game very well. In short, the story becomes less about the natural growth of the characters and the unraveling of the plot and more about yanking the audience one way and then the other. And keep in mind, that to pull off a good twist, you NEED to anticipate your audience, you need to know what they are thinking so you can subvert it. Which is even harder if the audience is EXPECTING a twist.
Unfortunately this adds up to a herculean task for DPC (albeit, one of his own making) he has to constantly keep ahead of the audience but also deliver on this twists to advance the story beats. Which leads to moments like this where the MC is narratively STUPID for no reason at all. Sadly, I think we can expect more of these moments to come.
