Eh. The appeal of a visual novel, at least for me, is the choose-your-own-adventure feel.
I could be wrong, but I don't think the gating for any of the scenes in this update are illogical or hard to achieve. Maybe Lucy doesn't need to be tied so much to the Felicia date (I might change that), but Hana / Mina / Kathleen splits are just "focus on them" stuff and the Allison/Sophia paths are determined within this (single) update.
I can understand not feeling satisfied, it's why stopping where we did was a difficult choice, but big picture the exhibition 3 free roam is a drop in the bucket. For anyone who finds it lacking, I'm hoping the experience rounds out once it's just part of "playing Pale Carnatons" rather than "playing the update", y'know? Sure everything could be linear, but as it stands, Edwin can potentially have sex 3 times BEFORE the exhibition games even start. The "magic of CYOA" aside, tonally it'd be kinda weird to play grab ass with Kat, fuck Hana, fuck Lucy, and also comfort Felicia within that span.
That last part isn't necessarily related to your complaint, but just a thought.