I have two thoughts:
1. This is understandable, from view point of empathy and good, i.e. in real life. But our context is an lewd fantasy game, so what's the point of not pushing everything to the limits and beyond? I can agree that breaking Emma(as well as most of other characters) possibly can make the story kinda darker, but isn't it better than some vanilla way?
I believe this depends heavily on what you want/expect from a Story. Pushing everything to max is not necessarily better then keeping it Vanilla. I think it's the mix of meeting and breaking the readers expectation what often makes the difference, besides many other things like Pacing, continuity and more. A "full force everething over 9k" type of Story can just be as boring and cliché ridden as a more tamer Vanilla one.
2. I think that Emma's fate will be harsh anyway. Because I'm almost shure that Kalyha planning Alex(Emma's son) one day to visit MC's club and discover what his mother has become and also to realise that it's totally related to MC(no way he is not planning such mean "revenge"), and Emma for shure will be aware of it. I can't even imagine emotional damage she will suffer in that case. And most likely her releationship with son will be ruined, he will leave home and etc, which is will cause even more emotional suffering to her.
So maybe better scenario for her is to become a broken whore, then to perform private dances for Alex without a doubt, but, for shure, without sex, just teasing, and for Alex - to become obsessed with visiting her regularly at club and cheaking her videos at MC's porn site/page. Like in trivial NTR story. At least it is a way to both of them to be more or less happy, in an crooked and sick way, but still.
I would say Emma's fate was already quite dark if you look at the other Woman. Adriana is almost treated like a raw egg in comparison, Jenna is the fiery one that almost provoked it with how she treated the MC, Linda is probably the second to pity because she only got cought by her past, while Emma's only "mistake" was that she has a stupid Son whom she loves dearly.
For the other ones like Kate or the Bimbo (forgott her Name), they are already quite "dirty minded" and MC is more amplifying their fetishes as corupting or breaking them.
Where I agree is that most likely there is something planned with Emma and Alex, just as I hope for something with Linda and Rebecca. Although I believe making Emma (or anyone) to a broken Whore has more problems to it then me having a soft spot for Emma. In the last update we got introduced to the Club as being one of a rather high standard, one with a certain reputation if not fame to it. Same goes for the 3 Dancers we met. So any visibly broken/unwillingly Performers would be, while probably having some fans, hurting the Club.
So I believe there are many other Girls that would fit better as Sexworkers then Emma, Kate with her exhibitionist kink is a no brainer I think, the Bimbo would fit right in as well in my opinion, maybe even Linda and her daughter if Linda really hides a "Wild Girl" behind her "modest Wife" facade. Generally playing Rebecca and Linda against each other to corrupt them both would be awesome I think, and fitting with their personalitys so far as well.
For Emma and Alex I agree that MC will definitely expose Emma at some point. But I believe that for this she doesn't need to be a broken whore, it would be quite contrary in my opinion. If I had to come up with a sort of Roadmap for Emmas corruption/MCs revenge on Alex I probably would think something like this:
On the question of the general tone of the Game, I believe it isn't meant to become as Dark as it probably could be. As I said before the Story has so many Stupid and at Times ridiculous twist and turns that help to lighten the mood that a suddenly much darker turn would feel strange in my opinion.
One example where I felt that way, was the Linda Bathroom Rape at Adrianas Birthday. It was the only Scene, that I can remember right now, where the Woman in the end "didn't kinda like it" like with most of Jenna's Scenes as example. It felt oddly out of place and too serious/gruel for how the overall mood of the Game until then was, and after the Scene again became, at least for me. I believe a good clue on what direction the Game could go in the future is the recent change/transformation of Emma and Jenna. Both have kind of "come around" to accept there kink, desires, what ever you want to call it and could become willingly and happy participants in the future. So a kind of "Happy End" is possible for all of the Characters, or at least most of them.
Phew, that escalated a little bit, sorry for the Wall of Text xD