Whilst some people might want that and they're obviously not going to get that, it's the rejection by Maya and Josy that is the main issue. The MC essentially says, "I want to be in a sexual/romantic relationship with both of you", and they shoot him down flat. It can be hard for people to wrap their heads around why he's still so friendly with them like he didn't just get dumped by 2 girls at the same time. Even if he doesn't dislike them for it, it should still be hard/awkward for someone to be around someone that just rejected them, but that isn't reflected at all in the game and the MC is seemingly acting like that didn't happen. In this sense, it's not maturity that he's showing, it's almost like he shows a sociopathic level of not caring, which is weird.
DPC didn't have to create a branching path where the MC's no longer involved in anything they do if he's rejected by them, and that's not the point being made. It's simply that the rejection path creates this odd situation, because of the forced interactions, where they're all acting like this didn't happen. If it had been the MC automatically choosing friendship on the DIK path then it would work better because he rejects them, which is something you'd imagine a DIK MC to do, but it also makes the continued friendship more understandable since he doesn't feel jilted anymore as he made the choice to be their friend.
To be fair to DPC, the game
does address this head on, potentially in Josy's talk with a rejected MC (Maya's too, to a lesser extent) and automatically with Derek. The MC essentially says he doesn't like it, but he's found a way to move on and isn't dwelling on what he lost.
That said, it's definitely a case of too little, too late. After all the time dwelling on the whole M/J situation, we need more than a quick assurance from the MC to believe he's not only healed his wounds, but is comfortable hanging out with the girls who rejected him.
It would also help if the game added extra content specifically for the friendship path to show how the new friendship is progressing, rather than just give it a watered down version of the romance path. And I still say the game needs to do a better job of addressing the actual causes for the rejection, rather than using one-size-fits all dialog to that can't differentiate between DIKs and CHICK MCs who never showed enough interest in either girl.
I definitely think your automatically choose friendship idea would have worked much better.
I felt the mc waaay overreacted when Josy first shows up, so then, to paraphrase you, you'd think he'd go off the deep end when they finally reject him when he still wants a romantic involvement with them. And then strangely he doesn't. Perhaps he's already come to terms with whatever the outcome was going to be before he even confronted them. He's spent a few days (staying with Bella, Derek or Sage) thinking about the whole situation, so maybe when he tells them he's looking for "something more" he may have already emotionally prepared himself for the outcome. There are ways to justify they way things turned out, it's just for those players who felt hurt during that scene they felt their own personal reaction wasn't dealt with.
I think the whole point of that "Follow your heart" narrative was supposed to illustrate that the MC has reached a turning point in his life where is has stopped reacting on instinct (especially about girls) and has started to take a longer, more mature view. It's meant to be a big deal and a real milestone for the MC. Sadly, it's handled too quickly and the setup is too haphazard to have that sort of weight.
Plus, subsequent events just don't bear it out. Episode 5 is all about the MC fucking sidegirls (and a couple LIs) just because the possibility presents itself - to say nothing about letting Derek turn on the sprinklers. Episode 6 has those juvenile D&G sex scenes. And as I'll never stop mocking, the MC goes along with Maya's "no strings" nonsense even when he has no interest in any other girls.
So yeah, it's less a major milestone and more worn out billboard.
