I think this game reached its peak several updates back , around the royal wedding update and has been on a slow spiral towards mediocraity and banality ever since. Ironically enough that despite being an incest game, the super focus on the mother where she takes about 50% or more of the renders of upcoming updates is the main reason for this downward spiral. Which is the fault of the Dev letting Patrons decide story content, instead of following his own established path (The dev started implementing Patron ideas since the Wedding update).
This is the reason why the early chapters where quite strong, and the afterward chapters are weaker and weaker. It is a common theme in VN games here, when devs allow Patrons to direct the story everything comes crashing down and nothing makes sense, but hey at least they got the "scenes" that they wanted.
I understand your frustration about characters not getting the spotlight you feel they might deserve - I sometimes get frustrated myself at instances of such "forgetfulness" by the devs.
However, it is important to realize that IC is a story centered about in*est action; and the draw to such stories is the forbidden and the taboo - what greater taboo is there than bedding your own mo*her? Sisters are great, too, but parents/children just hit different. Not to mention, Seraphina was the last LI to "fall". She has been teased longer than any other LI in the game (
just by a margin, though, Elin is right there with her). It makes sense that most of the fans want to see more of her, especially now that that particular threshold has been crossed. It is what it is, literally.
But it didn't make the story worse; your expectations might have risen as the game & story progressed, but truth is:
LM can never make the game wildly branch again like he did with the coup event in 0.6 - he just doesn't have the luxury of time to do it properly, or maybe even the mental power to handle all those theoretical branches you might have envisioned.
Trust me, the game is all better for it if he sticks to a tighter script and maintains the release schedule, than have it your way and let the exponential branching delay this game to the heat death of the universe.
All the interesting characters and side characters you meet from the beginning of the game are sidelined, or written as one note, or just given one scene and forgotten, just to make way for more scenes with the Mother. What Vampire? What elf you captured at the beginning of the game that you promised will be your own sex toy? All thrown to the trash. At best you might get a rushed scene in a few updates from now, to remind you they exist, but the potential of the game to be a truly branching paths VN with multiple paths is gone.
Valleria (the sex-toy elf) is finally getting a scene in 1.1 it looks, and I agree - it has been too long since we've last seen her. But also know that she is not a main LI, and her story has no bearing on the grander arc being told; her scenes are nothing more than a "distraction", a side quest that is good for nothing but a nice wank. Meanwhile, sex scenes with Lia, Elin, Cass, and Seraphina hold greater weight for the narrative being told - as the consequence of getting
them pregnant is significantly more impactful than getting Valleria pregnant.
Side girls are just not important enough to become recurring characters; we already have to trade some of the main LIs getting scenes for other main LIs getting theirs.