Like
ffive said about Robert, Perry is just fun to hate. I was exaggerating a bit just for laughs. Perry fulfills his role in the game, he's there to annoy and pissed of Ian but he's still a good guy that doesn't abandon his friends during bad times. You can choose to help him with Emma and/or Cherry and convince him to help with the cafe trying to make him grow up a bit and hopefully being a less annoying and useless dude (although his portrayal during the beach event doesn't show a lot of improvement for your efforts). Or you can just lose your patience with him and be mean, which also adds to the story, I love to tell him that I'm going to help him with Emma just to fuck her a few hours later, making sex with Emma hotter if you are into that.
Also, his dad being the current mayor ties him with Baluart's background plot and he will probably be significant for how Ian and Lena deal with Seymour as he's backing the other candidate for mayor.