This is the same argument people use to get excited about political candidates they don't actually like but are better than the alternative. Just because something is better than bad doesn't make it good. We can be critical of standards without living in a fantasy world.
And THAT is the same argument people use to argue for a "good political candidate" that will make the country rich, make all necesities of life easy to get access to and free, rid the streets of all crime, and destroy any corruption within the nation.
So I need to know, where is this line you speak of? You said that around 80% or more of this game's peers are way below it, so are the other 20% way above it? Does it barely crack that 20%?
What is that number 1 porn game on the list of 100 best porn games of all time that is nowhere near slop?
I mean "good renders, pasable animations (that get better each chapter btw), and fairly well written" is still just mediocre? Sincerely just having a good grasp on the english language and just a bit of knowledge or intuition on staging would put something in the "way above the slop" in this site (Not that I can blame them, I myself am not a native english speaker but still these people are using patreon and are betting on a large audience despite not being fluent because their game being in english is their best bet).
Are we waiting for the porn versions of Sekiro, Sinphony of the night and FFVII (the best one, NOT imo)?