Hard agree: the Corruption path has an excellent flow of build-up to escalation from the start. MC finally figured out he has a chance to remove his final obstacle - the libido potion - out of the equation, and let the Queen indulge. With resounding success.
Which is why I said the Love path sex scene feels off - a last-minute addition in an attempt to "equalize" the paths in that regard (
notice how both sex scenes end with MC finishing inside the Queen, with no choice given to the player), but fails miserably because sex was totally not in their cards from the atmosphere; at most, when she snuck into his room, it should've been a blowjob and nothing else. Still would've been weird for the Queen to act that way, but at least she kept true and didn't cross that line. Now, this forced equity of the paths has me worried...
On the topic of Alaina/Conrad reveal... I guess it fits with what you said. It's sometimes hard to remember all the details from past playthroughs, but again - that "exposition" scene is a victim of the wild branching: in some paths, MC doesn't have a clue about what's going behind the scenes, because some opportunities to learn more directly conflict with gaining Love points with an LI. To my MC, it was an expo dump, but to yours, it was the final piece of the puzzle.
I think there are only 3 possible major players; The Red Emperor (humans), Mirta (Elves), and the weird shape-shifting deity that approached us in the woods, claiming satisfaction that we killed Cass - one connected to the talking cats. Could it be Mother Nature?