Agreed--while it's possible to play for a solo route, that's very much not the design of the game.
I had few complaints about OiaL, but that was one of them--aside from a couple of threesomes, none of the girls knew about any of the others until we're one big, happy, pregnant family at the end. I do think we're going to get more build-up to it here, though (and I say that having not seen most of 0.8). First, we have MC wondering in passing whether the girls would be upset about him messing around. Sure, he dismisses the thought pretty quickly, but at least the question's been raised.
Second, everyone (except, possibly, for Luna and Nova) knows that MC didn't come home the night he spent at Alex's apartment, and they know about his conversation with William--they have to know he spent it there.
Third, they all know each other, and all pretty well, and they all know at least that MC's pretty close with all of them. They're not dumb.
Fourth, Nancy, at least, knows that Nova's date with MC in 0.7 was important to her. She also all but encourages MC to get with Dalia, Penny, or both. Moreover, as Calypso rightly says, she's a powerful ruler in her own right--I expect she's going to have a lot to do with getting the harem together.
Fifth, Carib has said that every girl gets a threesome, which will mean, at a minimum, that every girl will know that MC's with at least one other girl.
So I'm still not sure what it's going to look like, I'm confident we're going to see much more building of the harem that we did in OiaL.
