I'm actually sure many of us restarted entirely while keeping our fetish content unlocked saves. You're 100% correct on this.
Not only does it allow people to help with bug testing, it also allows you to go "oh shit, I didn't notice that". Replayability is important in the game industry, and we're talking about hobby coding here. I'm at the point where without the typos and bugs, you'd almost have a game like the ones we want to replay over and over again just because. And those are finished games.
I really do hope Teary considers a NG+ between updates, he can do it. People would bitch less about losing their progress and it fits the story considering Dilan can't even die at all no matter how hard he tries. That and a scene recollection, but this one's really, really hard at this point - too many different possibilities. It's doable, but it'd take quite a while to catch all the events and replay them independently.
That's just a gut feeling really. It's impossible to read Teary's mind, it's way too deep. We can always fantasize about it, but in the end, only Teary knows... and even so, he might not be sure. Writer's dilemma. Keeping things consistent can be a hassle but Teary did it, and still manages to throw us into an abyss that gazes into us.
What's certain is Dominic's personality was certainly designed to be grim, as Dilan shivers after reading his diary and wonders if it even is his - not even mentioning the vials he finds in there too. Dominic's definitely deranged and emotionally unstable, but in the game, EVERYONE is deranged and that makes the game even better.
Every character is designed to be completely mystifying in how they behave and react if you pay attention. That keeps the game going, and it's fucking awesome as long as people remember when they're out of things to do, they don't even have to restart, though doing that is fine too and then they'll notice it feels completely different all of a sudden.
One of the downsides is the abundance of choices that lead to the same thing - but that might actually be placeholder content LOL. If we then notice in a few updates there's something important in a choice that had nothing in it, well shit, that's one of the secrets to making the game grow retroactively.