WARNING: THIS REPLY IS EXTENSIVE, THE LONGEST I HAVE EVER TYPED OUT EVER ON THIS PLATFORM...You have been warned lol.
It is clear that you have and ARE currently investing a lot of thought and effort into developing this novel/ game, even going as far as to say that you are looking into a sandbox mode OR are going to switch to that style entirely, which is entirely your decision, there are those, like myself, who will follow this religiously, just because it is clear that you actively share your desires and vision to the players, there is little to no communication barrier or defects in understanding the dialog within the project, and there are improvements being implements and planned.
There are SO...MANY...indy developers, with a myriad of issues stemming from English not being their first language, bugs in the coding, erratic game/story flow, characters speaking the exact same way or form..almost like they have the script from the same individual who doesn't have the imagination so separate personalities, that don't even bother with constructive feedback at all, which I think directly stunts the growth of the project, to outright abandoning it entirely.
Again I have to emphasize that I see this much less in those who are actively attempting to improve the dynamics and flow.
There are developers I have followed since they first dipped their toes into the creative side of producing games/ novels, some of whom you might be familiar with, creating games like Ataegina that was a slow starter, but expanded VERY quickly due to public input and support, a PERSONAL favorite named Love Of Magic who in my opinion wrote the book on how to utilize feedback to better the mechanics, that was reinvented a couple of times, JUST to actively improve the flow and dynamics based on player ideas/ support, Being A DIK, which also followed the same premise for improvement and development, YET that was a shit-show when the creator first stepped into the niche of novels and games, and NOW look at it, the graphics/ animation/ story /renders / and flow are right on point (again keep in mind it did not start out that way at ALL), right down to Lust Epidemic, transitioning to the second installment named Treasure Of Nadia, what is NOW The Genesis Order (the third part of the expanded story), in THAT series you can clearly see that every aspect of their creation were improved, almost like watching a creation or child develop and grow into the adult they currently are today>
I see THIS story and creation following the same steps and evolving dynamics, from the prologue to the current edition, which I only see improving with story flow, mechanics, art and renders, to animation which I am sure you will want to implement soon enough as time goes on (just focus on the areas you are thinking about now, the rest will sort itself out in time when necessary, no need to go crazy like many others have, trying to list the importance of each action).
It would seem that I greatly expanded what my reply was initially going to be, to a novel in itself, but I am very impressed that you will indeed be implementing options for content control, into the novel...no this creation rather, since I have found on this platform here that there are a great many individuals who have what I would deem as questionable interests/ fetishes, and might indeed look forward to seeing them within this dynamic, but for those who can clearly live without them without having to sacrifice much of the story or dialog, having the chance to completely bypass that scene or character preference, it means the world since I have dropped projects that couldn't or chose not to, in the past.
There are projects that even start out with questionable mechanics from creation, with the exception of honorifics, which usually help clarify situations like you use, others are more like what to call the respective characters within the narrative (Titles that the creator is FORCED to alter based on Patreon specifications, like Landlady, Tenant, Neighbor, "Stepmothers-Best Friends-Neighbors-Cousin-Ex Husbands-Coworkers-Highschool sweetheart"...that last one was an exaggerated name of how it often feels for many of us lol) and there are current stories on here that ONLY use their titles instead of their birth-names...things like that get annoying mighty quick to many, including myself, or that fail for a myriad of reasons, often ending up where content takes far too long to be released for one reason or another, stemming from the creator either not listening to their fans, OR listening too MUCH and trying to please everyone at once...which I will tell you from personal experience...never works to do anything aside from burning you out.
If you or anyone reading what I have written finished it, I would be very impressed, good luck with this project, I will follow it with great interest and expectation in the near future!