First, about the important.
There are no stats on the scene map - because pumping stats is grinding, and few people like it, as far as I understand. In any case, I have not heard a single voice here in its defense.
I apologize if i actually like to play a game and not just braindead rush through scenes, stats make sense if you dont make it a grind fest... doing a couple of actions to gain a stat in order to progress to a certain phase is not grindy, grindy is if you have to repeat the same action 10-20-100 times in order to progress. Of course you will only hear the snowflakes complaining that they actually hav to play the game and not just rush through the scenes.
In general, yes, going through scenes without worrying too much about grinding, that's what happened. At the same time, it seems to me that the player has the freedom to go one of the paths, and he should also think about what he is doing - am I wrong?
Indeed u are wrong, i can do all 5 sleeping scenes straight no story, no thinking no nothing needed on my part, when they should be unlocked in a certain timeline linked by the proximity/stats related with the mother, not just because i press buttons 1 to 5 straight, simply because they are available.
Players hav so much freedom, that the scenes make no sense at all, they are just senseless without a defined timeline, making this new mode more brainless than "marvel's multiverse of madness"
Your game used to have a timeline and a story, now its just a bunch of clickable scenes with no story to actually follow.
Now the rest.
Yes, renaming John and other names is an annoying bug, already fixed, everything will be ok in the new update.
Flowers and books - you are right here, this should be removed. But they did not do much before, why did you suddenly realize?
Good for the correcting on the naming bug.
If i remember correctly flowers were used when u picked the wrong choice with the mother, to fix the relation, and books were used to raise a stat of sorts which made complete sense.
And finally.
Of course I want to do better, it is strange to think that I am trying to ruin everything. Now I am trying to listen to the community.
Listening to the community is nice, giving in to every single whiner that wants a fast fap, is what ruins a game...
But hey its ur game...
I liked the story the grind was acceptable, and the actions made senses along with the mistakes i made on the playthrough...
Now the game makes no sense for me, there is no gameplay whatsoever, the story is completely randomized, because events dont take precedence between each other... there was a reason you could only see a scene previously after doing something, because it made sense on the story's timeline, now everything seems senseless...
This is my honest opinion, and several other ppl hav pointed out in comments that the game, as is now, makes no sense... but you do whatever u feel like, again it is YOUR game, as it is, for me its a game to remove from bookmarks and forget it ever existed...
Good luck