Alright, here's the way I see it. I don't consider Ashley to be a mean cunt and I don't consider the MC to be some submissive "beta cuck". Anyone with any degree of emotional maturity can see that Ashley is all bark and no bite. Yeah, she says the stuff she does but it's such an obvious front that I don't see how anyone can take any of it seriously. If there was a more westernized version of the whole "Tsundere" character archetype it would basically be Ashley. It blows my mind that there are people so insecure that the stuff Ashley says would actually get them butthurt. Don't get me wrong though; there are certain instances in the most recent update where I did think that the MC was too passive, especially when it came to dealing with Ashley's sister Ashlyn. I do wish he had called her out on her bullshit immediately. If not in the tattoo place, at least when they got to the clothing store. But I guess you could argue that he didn't want to make the situation more difficult for Ashley, since his main reason for being there was to support her.
When it comes to Emily, she also puts up a front, although it is different from Ashley's due to Emily being way more innocent. Emily is still dealing with how to process her lack of control over situations. Her default response has always been anger and violence, which she does realize and has been trying to take steps towards addressing. The way she was able to process this and apologize after you and Ashley finally made it home was actually a big step for her. Emily tends to wear her heart on her sleeve when it comes to the people she is actually close to, which she has demonstrated multiple times. Knowing this, I just don't get how people can't recognize that her "getting mad at you" is basically just her weird way of expressing affection to some extent.
It's very important to remember that Ashely, Emily and the MC are all in a HALFWAY HOUSE. If they had their shit together emotionally and psychologically, they wouldn't have been there in the first place! All three of them are working on their character defects, and all three are fallible (as humans tend to be). The vast majority of the "beta cuck behavior" some people keep having a problem with, is nothing more than the MC having the emotional intelligence to understand what Ashley and Emily are actually trying to communicate with their behavior. Ashley gives you shit because "that's just Ashley", it's how she interacts with those she cares about. She constantly teases Emily as well, but at the end of the day, both of them understand that the other cares for them deeply. Emily can be sensitive but is also fiercely loyal, the only time she really gets angry at either Ashley or the MC is when she feels like she is being left out, or that they are pushing her away.
Both Emily and Ashley hate being vulnerable. The majority of Emily's punching/kicking/complaining comes as a result of her being put in situations where she feels vulnerable and she tends to lash out in order to attempt to regain some sort of control. But, as Emily and the MC have gotten closer, more and more of that front falls away and she starts being progressively more vulnerable. Despite the fact that she finds it highly highly embarrassing (which is awesome and the cutest thing ever).
When it comes to sex stuff, both of them have their own unique reaction to the vulnerability such actions make them feel. Emily's is to either resist doing sexual stuff and/or get extremely embarrassed by it. Despite the fact that deep down she really likes it and wants to do it. It could be argued that some of the more tomboyish aspects of her personality are a result of the embarrassment she feels when expressing her femininity. Ashley's response to sex is basically the opposite of Emily's. Instead of avoidance and embarrassment, she instead leans into it. Embracing her sexuality, and attempting to control the sexual encounters that she is in. She likes to be one in control, she wants to be the one doing the "fucking" instead of the one being fucked. By making herself look "slutty" and sexually provocative, she is even able to feel like she has control over the male gaze that she feels is constantly on her. Through these behaviors and others, she is able to avoid the vulnerability associated with intimacy. That is why she has fallen so hard for the MC. Over time he has been able to break through that facade and force her into a state of emotional vulnerability, both in their conversations as well as eventually in their sexual encounters (aka the train scene). Due to this, she has ended up falling for him, despite the fact that the MC doesn't seem to realize it. Because of this, Ashley is still somewhat able to keep up her whole teasing facade, at least to some extent. It could also be argued that her attempting to help the MC get with Emily is her way of feeling a sense of control over the situation since I think she knows that the MC is going to choose Emily over her. So, by pushing the MC towards getting with Emily she is able to avoid some of the sting of rejection since she can tell herself "he didn't choose her over me. I was just making sure he was good enough for her/I wanted them to get together". Anyways, this is the way I see all of this. Where most of what some people perceive as negative reactions by Em and Ash are just the result of preexisting character traits they have, and at the end of the day it is very clear that they both care about the MC much more than they let on.
So, all of that being said, AZ certainly could put in the dialogue choices to allow some of you to behave like the immature insecure assholes you apparently want to be. But, I don't think it would play out the way that you think it would. And I'd imagine that if it were to play out the way you want it to, in order for it do to that, AZ would have to fundamentally compromise the nature of characters that he has obviously spent a very long time crafting, writing, and building up over the course of this VN.
Just my two cents.
