As you say, it's bizarre .. and doesn't make much sense from any point of view given how he's already built up these characters. It's strange to consider he's being creatively stubborn because we already know for the right price he can be bought, as seen with all this useless side content causing setbacks towards the base game. To guess, the best deal we might get with a different LI will be after the game's finished and he makes bonus episodes as his done so far to tell a "what if". At least that would fit his MO. This bloke is stubborn as fck since day one about this (5-6 years ago) so it's unlikely he'll change his mind any other way.
Another very unlikely possibility is that he's a massive troll and despite everything he's said to the contrary these routes are already implemented unofficially into the game observed through the narrative and it's just 1 or 2 decisions made near the end that'll officially create a different route. Idk, when it comes to this bloke expect less and you might get more.
