Okay, people are reading into my statements and are coming away with things I never said. Also I did not mean for this to turn into an argument so I'll just clarify some things and then leave it here. Feel free to have the last word, I don't care. This will be my last post.
First of all, I was never discussing how the story interacted with the gameplay. You are correct that the debt plays a very small part in the actual gameplay cycle. Never the less, the fact that the ranch is in debt is what kickstarts the plot.
Second, with regard to the church, my point was they had successfully shut down several monster breeders in the local area, not globally. This is mentioned multiple times, take this direct quote for example:
"...the church and queen have been damn strict on enforcing regulations. They even closed a farm three months ago for having one Cowgirl living in a catgirl enclosure."
I'll admit you were more correct about not cutting down on promiscuity as that is common for certain characters. Though I stand by them being more than a nuisance STORY WISE because the farm is $2 Mil in debt, they've successfully run other breeders out of town and multiple characters comment on them being in charge of basically everything.
For evidence the following is a direct quote from the game:
"I'd give them more credit than just being fanatical... they exist hand in hand with the Monarchy here, so they pretty much run everything. They're more about running Monster Breeders out of business through strict taxes and regulations, instead of the usual pitchfork and torch routine."
On the topic of the church's antagonism, if we want to get into semantics I never said they were antagonists, but rather that they stood opposed to the equality of monsters and humans. That being said they are very antagonistic. The princess is aligned with the church but its the church motivating the oppression not the princess. The church girl even has a line that says something like "The princess would find it easy to fall into pagan ways." They routinely threaten to close the ranch, they routinely and arbitrarily increase the taxes on the Ranch, they believe in human supremacy, they advocate slavery, the church chick threatens to cut off your hands (admittedly only when you pinch her) and have the ranch burned down, she threatens to have you arrested for paganism and she (as a personal belief, not associated with the church but as a church representative) advocates for total human monster segregation despite some monsters being intelligent. They are not good people and stand directly opposed to the beliefs of old king who wanted human monster equality.
Third, I never said they "gave" MC the Ranch, I said they put him in charge, they literally call him the manager. They allow him control over the finances, the monsters, and the upgrading and construction of Ranch buildings, he is running the ranch. I think you may have misread my statement.
Fourth, I never said Rika was not a slut. I said that she was married to show the game attempting to implement romance was not out of character for this universe. I also said the she does not work in the breeding pits anymore, despite the fact that her farm is about to go under as a result of no longer having a breeder. I used that as support for my claim that the game was implying that she was meant as a Love Interest and that she was not going to be banging the beastmen at random, or at least not behind our backs. If she were going to continue that activity it would make more logical sense for her to continue working in the pit as it would benefit both her and her daughter.
Regarding the revitalization - its iffy. The villagers comment that its nice to have a new breeder in town. You're also providing higher quality and new breeds of monsters. You also do revitalize the elves though thats not what I was initially talking about. I'll admit this was not one of my stronger arguments.
Regarding my comment about the lines drawn in the sand - that may not be the best phrase. What I meant is that they clearly define most character's behaviors and preferences and by saying Rika is retired while simultaneously throwing herself at MC it came across, to me at least, as an indication that she was meant to be seen as a love interest for MC. Typically, in harem/non-NTR games players want to monopolize the character's affections and in Rika's case they've killed off her husband (classic) and told us she is retired from being a breeder, one could assume that the game dev was, in a sense, clearing the way to romance her. All I'm saying is that in a game where they specifically say 'you are in charge', the dev could have give us the agency to decide if she slept with us or a monster.
Sorry for the text wall.