That are exactly my thoughts.I agree, but I think it makes sense to offset that by making progress with Kira and Alice MUCH faster to give the player some significant rewards in the early to mid game. You don't want the whole game to be a slow grind with minimal reward til the very end. [...]
Olivia is another character that [...] would be a great choice to progress rather quickly to allow some satisfying progress [...]
Au contraire. I would like to object. I played the entire game once in the "hostile" path. Now, after I noticed that there are no real, satisfying rewards, I do not feel like playing the other possible paths (true friendship and fake friendshi path), but I am considering to turn my back to that game. It is too much grinding for too little reward.[...] in my opinion both Lisa and Ann are two characters that have to keep the player wanting to see more, therefore they are slow character developments because there is a fear that by giving the player what he wants (have sex with Lisa and Ann) the player leaves the game and they cannot continue earning money with it.
If the developers want to keep the players they should provide _more_ content, not less. Even after the MC had fucked Lisa, this doesn't imply there wouldn't be left any room for more content. For example, Olivia is another character which could be developed. There are even options for a FFM threesome (Lisa, Olivia, Max). Or Max could try to corrupt Lisa even more to become the school slut. Etc. pp.
Saying that the developers must keep the pace slow in order to keep player involved with the game sounds like a lame excuse for the developers having no idea what should come next.