To put aside the argument about whether V is or isn't a bad partner for just a moment, I want to speculate on another aspect of her character that could be holding her back: would she be more tolerable if she were more closely tied to Jake's life? There are five main love interests: the ex wife, the girlfriend, the student, the neighbor, and the best friend's neighbor. In that hierarchy, you'd imagine V would rank at or at least near the top, with either Allison or Natalya at the bottom.
But when you consider the events of the game and the aspects of Jake's life that really makes the story - his work with the battery, his racing career, and Lily - V has one of the more tenuous connections to his day to day. Jasmine, obviously, is his assistant in the lab and the only one who really knows anything about his racing work. And Allie is the mother of his child, sharing the pain of Lily's accident.
Then there's Natalya, who proves quite knowledgeable when discussing the project and who eagerly gets involved in several events to help Jake. Maggie hasn't had a ton of direct involvement either, but her storyline is suggested to be more deeply tied to Jake's than it seems on the surface due to Wyatt's appearances. Both are currently on the outside looking in, but have good reason to expect greater involvement in near future updates.
By contrast, V has been involved with his battery project since the beginning, and while she doesn't know about the racing she was one of the first people Jake told about Lily's accident. If you stick with her, you can take her to various events and work together to promote the battery, but none of her unique scenes really pull her any closer to Jake's life.
Now, this isn't me trying to make the argument of "all women should exist to serve the man's needs" or whatever crap. Blegh, gross. But as the story has progressed we've seen the other four gradually get closer to Jake by tying themselves to the main story, the things he's experiencing as he tries to save his daughter. But Veronica stands stagnant at the edge of his world, doing her best to pull him into hers.
Pretty much every unique scene Veronica has in the game is on her terms: going over to her apartment, finding her in the library, going hiking or taking a yoga class with her, her constant desire to surprise Jake and keep him in suspense. And, again, not saying that they need to do his stuff all the time. She obviously has a life outside him and it's nice to look in on it. But when the other girls are getting more involved with Jake's side of things, the side of the story that keeps us here between the lewds, it makes her feel more like a distraction rather than a component.
Of course, it's not her fault she's on the periphery like that. She mentions early on that she wants to get more involved in Jake's life, meet Lily and Cooper and everyone else that matters to him. The fact that she's not as involved is honestly more on him than on her. But for us as viewers, I think it becomes harder to get attached to her, especially in the way she wants us to, if we never feel like she's truly a part of our life. I think something as simple as showing her and Jake writing his convention speech together could've gone a long way towards making her feel less like a passenger in his journey and more like a participant.
I can only hope she'll find more narrative relevance in future updates. As it is right now, she feels rather redundant as a character. Like, if you turn her down early and she ghosts you, she just straight up disappears from almost every scene and it makes zero impact on the story. I think that speaks volumes about her integration into the game. And, as the LI who is easiest to ignore and fastest to upset, it means everyone has less of a chance to get to know her unless they set out from the start with intent to woo her.
