On the topic of the game's story (and even general direction), i can only talk for myself, but i will say story is never something i look for in a porn game. I'm usually looking for... well... porn. That's why i very rarely play visual novels: i have no interest in reading sometimes hours of cutscenes just to get to a single, sometimes very short, scene. That's why i usually drop any game that takes more than a couple minutes to both: give me control of the character and give me some porn (serious, why the heck do developers think it's a nice idea to have sometimes half hour prologes to their porn games?! Especially when those prologes are just "click next simulator")
Now, Harem Hotel is pretty much an exception to me, as it's a more sandbox-ish type of visual novel that balances out it's story and porn very well (for the most part). But i would still say the story parts are... well, i never really liked them, and aways felt they were a chore i had to skim through to get to what really matters to me. Sorry, but when i'm horny i won't get invest in a ten minutes flashback or exposition, as engaging as the developer tries to make them.
Now, i'm not trying to offend enyone. By the end of the day, this is Runey's game, and they do what they see fit. But with any art, there is the vision of the author, and there is what the audience absorves, and that last bit will vary greatly from person to person. I believe many here love those characters, and care for them as one would any regular character from a story one really likes. And while i do care for this characters a lot more than i do in other porn games, i'm not still quite that into them. I still come back to this game for the porn first, and i believe many would feel the same.
It's not a matter of right and wrong, it's just everyone has their preferences and their own unique way of interacting with each piece of media they consume.
