The opening rape scenes are avoidable, yes, but it's actually quite unintuitive to do and without opening the game code I wouldn't be surprised if many players never figured out how and just assumed it was enforced. This was my assumption before I made the restoration mod and looked through the original code myself. It also sets the expectations for the game ahead completely wrong, and is probably the second biggest reason for all the disappointment.
(The first biggest reason, of course, is that you're very very strongly pushed to make Sabia sell blowjobs to survive in phase 1. That was a bad idea, if they were gonna remove the almost-mandatory rape scenes to adjust expectations they should have removed the relief tent blowjobs too.)
I think the start of the game was just fine, but it had to be changed because too many people drew the wrong conclusions from it.
Let's see, we have a female protagonist, who was betrayed by an elder sibling, she ended up in a tribe she considered to be uncivilized and was forced to perform sexual acts she didn't enjoy. But eventually she learned more about the tribe and accepted them, she rose to become a well known and respected member. Of course along the way she ended up having more and more sex, sometimes for fun sometimes for power, but once she deals with the opposition within the tribe, she can set out to achieve her original goal: to claim her rightful place in the Kingdom that tossed her out in the first place.
Oh, btw that's not KoD, that's GoT from the perspective of Daenerys. Hands up anyone who thinks that Daenerys is on a corruption game? Yet when Sabia goes through the same journey people complain about a "failed corruption game" where the creators didn't deliver what they promised.
I think aside of the pace of development the game delivered exactly what was promised to us, but for various reasons the expectations and the promise didn't align.
After all, NN was similar. Sure, if one only looks at the H scenes, it seems like a corruption game, but if those are ignored for a moment, then it's about a protagonist with suicidal depression building lifelong friendships, saving a town and she eventually either sets out on a new quest to rebuild one of the kingdoms involved or she settles down to enjoy (in various ways) a simple life. That's a positive and uplifting story which just happens to have a lot of great sex in it.