I assume he means the game having content that is highly divisive rather than focusing on a single audience. It somewhat always feels like you're only playing half of a game if you don't enjoy everything it has to offer.
Then there are the addition of some controversial LIs, let's put it that way. Atm, it's only Carmen though.
Idk how it was with the previous game as I didn't play it (the look on the poster girl felt very weird to me. Not just her colors, but some of her proportions too, including in the face. Like her eyes. But I digress).
The game is very good, no question. At least the route I chose, that excludes most of what would be automatic nopes for me.
Then again, maybe this is a strategy the dev is banking on, having two strong kinks and ways of play that are very antagonistic and are usually mutually exclusive and somehow mix them in a single game. Both of his games are fairly popular and it seems to be working.
Would it be more popular if it only catered to one of these mutually excluding ways of playing? Maybe. But maybe not.