I got to a point in the game when I couldn't progress any character without progressing the Lin story. I actually liked that as it made me realise I needed to focus more on Lin. Is it worth having more of these triggers / conditions throughout the story to ensure the order of the story is kept fairly in line?
There are, fairly obviously, contexts that are essential. What happens to
Maria doesn't make sense if you don't know the overall landscape.
I'm currently playing a clean from-the-beginning game, because I last played it with a mod and that no longer works. Also, I wanted to see all the revamps and inserted content, which were terrific. Still, it's tedious to start from the beginning and I really didn't want to do it.
My biggest "OMG, I want the mod back" moment was the money cheat. And so, I deformed my play of the game in two ways: 1) I got everyone's stats (sluttiness, affection, exhibitionism, all the sex stats) to max, then 2) I got the bar up and running, with all upgrades, ASAP. Which ends my money issues. Then I finished *everyone* who's not a core character, to the point that they could be finished.
After that, it's all story. Which is intense, yet enjoyable.