Just to clarify, it was the pornstar not the photographer in the end that she did things with.
Everyone can have their own opinions, I myself would have liked Vi to be there to see Erics first time fully with another girl because I think it'd have been hot - but I'm pretty much 100% sure that will happen in the future - and I also would have certainly not minded Eric being there for Vi's first big step with another guy like that as well. CG himself realized on the latter part that he should keep it a bit more limited to allow for a more fully fleshed out scene to be with Eric present. This was already mentioned on the discord some time ago, no clue if it got mentioned here I've not been active until the other day.
But nothing has actually really changed in their relationship, Eric still gets off to Vi doing things with other guys and surprising him, Vi still gets off on Eric being with other girls. Something I feel like people missed is before Vi ever even arrives at the shoot she already comes to the conclusion that she wants to talk to Ari about sharing her with Eric, when she's texting her on the bench. She didn't just share Ari to him as some sort of payback (at least not only) retroactively, but did it because she had already wanted to anyway.
The game isn't and never was "vanilla"... I tried my best to communicate this without spoiling. But that doesn't mean Eric and Vi don't have a close relationship. It is not a relationship modeled on the real world, people making those comparisons are missing the point. Of course in real life communication is absolutely key, but in a game which is trying to excite the player it can just bog things down and reduce suspense/excitement. And so instead of playing it that way, CG has just made it so Eric and Vi are more or less okay with things taking them off guard, that doesn't mean there's never any tension/drama at all, but it does mean that both have and will do things that in a normal relationship would be massive red flags even in such a relationship but within the context of the game are not taken the same way.
Ultimately, both Eric and Vi are degenerates who get off on each other being degenerates. Eric gets off on Vi being a slut, Vi gets off on Eric fucking other girls. It's not a real world healthy relationship and isn't meant to be, but within the context of the game they still love each other, that hasn't changed.
PS: This isn't a reply to just you, just using your comment as a reply to a number of similarish comments and sort of encapsulating my reply.