Different strokes for different folks. Games that allow such freedom of choices are rare and valuable in my mind. To be fair, as much as Randy is a dick, he appears to be an honest version of a typical harem protag.
"Games that allow such freedom of choices are rare and valuable in my mind." -- Bingo!
Reading many of Canto's posts over the past couple of years, in my opinion (which may be an incorrect assumption) he represents the majority of players on this site. That is to say, they approach a game from a first-person perspective and insert themselves emotionally into a game. I, and possibly you, do not approach the game in that fashion. I am a third person player. I run all the routes looking at how the story is written; how does tension build; how does the developer/author depict the results of my decisions? And because of that emotional attachment they make responses such as he did, attempting to shame anyone playing differently. And because of your emotional detachment, you can respond with "...different strokes."
And as you mentioned harem games, these same reasons is why I won't play forced harem games. Those games really stroke the ego of the first person player, but writing them is an exercise in mediocrity and laziness. As a third person player there is nothing but a predictable outcome. I need something more savory to bite into.