Yeah, I find myself pretty much agreeing with everything you said and I don't really have much to add to or even criticize.
Far as I can tell in regards to the Therapist, their path was dropped after non-con wasn't allowed because of Patreons T&S. Which, if you ask me is a cop out. You can blame Patreon as to being the reason why certain content was dropped, but you can't blame Patreon for not producing any content whatsoever. That's nothing but a complete lack of imagination on the devs part. If you can't do no-con/hyponotism with the Therapist then do a femdom relationship progression system. The Therapist can encourage certain kinks, which if the player agrees too, unlocks certain routes which could follow the original non-con story. The only difference is that the player gets to decide if they want to go down that road and is saying "yes" to it along the way. The player can also refuse and resist, which creates the revenge route I was talking about earlier. Two birds with one stone with that appoach. So yeah I really don't have any sympathy for the devs blaming Patreon for the development hell this game has been in. It's like you said, a series of bad choices.
I actually think the forced fem content often hurts games such as PE. Granted I don't enjoy the kink whatsoever and I only tolerate it when I play such games, but hear me out. The problem I often find with forced fem games such as PE is how quickly it confines the player choices, replayability and creative freedom. In a sense the game quickly finds itself in a prison by it's own making. For example, when you replay the game, you're forced into the same linear progression system with no real way to rebel or resist it. Now I understand it being forced is the appeal to many players when the experience is new and fresh, but replaywise it quickly grows stale. For example, you cannot explore different relationships with different characters and explore different kinks, you cannot break out of the repetitive 9-5 grind mechanic, which does get boring quickly, and you're often forced to wear the same restrictive clothe options if you don't then you face penalties such as a game over or you suffer no progression to the story whatsoever all because you showed up in the wrong heels or something. In addition to that, because the game is forced onto this one track story narrative, the devs can't really try something new or develop a new route without completely going on a tangent which is what we've been seeing with PE. As to be expected the devs working on PE got burnt out on the forced fem content and wanted to explore different kinks, but they realistically can't do that without going on a tangent so it just wastes every bodies time.
I think this is where Degrees of Lewdity succeeds where PE fails. From the very beginning the player has complete freedom, and can choose where to go, who to meet, where to work, what to wear, or, if they want to go to school or not, and it's fantastic. When the dev wants to try something new it doesn't come off as a tangent but instead as new content. A complete new area to explore and characters to interact with. This keeps the game fresh and gives the devs creative freedom to explore and try new things while still having the means to revisit old content and expand on it. Now I'm not saying PE needed to be a sandbox game with no story or direction, but the overall complete lack of freedom and one track story narrative, it's a prison of its own making. You can never rebel against the teacher at the start to then instead have a new experience with a new character. In short, Ms Baxton story isn't just a "route" it is the whole game, and all other content has to fit into that restrictive narrative. I believe that hurts the game.
I definitely think with Ms Baxton and Ms Antlers that what drives them is kink or hatred of masculinity in men. I have no reason to suspect otherwise. For example, there's a scene in Secretary where Ms Antlers visits the players home, and if you're not wearing female clothing, and instead are in male clothes, because its your day off so no need to wear the "uniform" Ms Antlers flies into a rage and physically assaults the PC, destroys the male clothes and forces you into female clothes. This made it very clear to me that Ms Antlers is an abusive person, which is why I loved the revenge ending so much. I don't have much sympathy for abusive and controlling people. That said, I do agree, the lack of story telling into why they even care about forced fem is a plot that is rarely explained and it should be.
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