I think, in the context of SoC. There's several tensions in the material that we're seeing. Most games don't run the ramut of fetishes as SoC, so they normally have more freedom to abide by certain genre tropes. Maledom M/f games are much more inclined to have the rule that "No male seen on screen can have sex visibly" and "No woman seen on screen can end up with someone besides the MC".
The effect of these is normally posative on teh face of it. It centers the sexual focus on the MC and it conveys a sense of power to not have other women who the MC don't fuck or don't permenantly end up with.
But, there's certain narrative tradeoffs that you make in terms of limiting the scope of the story. If it runs too long, the relationships start to trip over each other. It limits the other charachters that can be shown on screen, and it limits the kinds of storylines that can emerge. You cannot do an epic sex story in that context, because the potential scale of the world rapidly escalates the scale of a meaningful harem. Many of SoC's most compelling storylines could not exist in that kind of context.
I would know, btw. I worked on HaremVX, a game that tries to mix those maledom ahremgame tropes with an epic story, with results that often failed to deal with the tension between those two storytelling styles.
It also works best when focused exclusively on that audience. Femdom stories, stories aimed towards a more female audience, bisexual stories, stories about broader groups of people, all are diminished by following some of those storytelling ropes and conventions, that otherwise have merit in their intended place.
SoC is not a limited Maledom Harem type story. But, it's also not not a Maledom Harem story, either. The game purposefully can be played that way.
So what we see in audience reaction and in divisive opinion is that those who find that genre of story their prefrence (a totally reasonable question of taste) will react negatively to some of the elements of SoC.
But, at the same time, I empathize with some of the pushback against that position too. Not because it's wrong to love Maledom Harem stories. But, because a lot of what I find personally exciting about SoC IS the complex world and web of sexual relationships. So, when I see feedback asking to scale that back, I read it as asking for reduction in favor of a particular peron's fetishistic outlook. And when I see someone complaininag about people who just want "generic harem game" what I believe the part people object to is "generic" instead of "harem". I percieve Rivon's problem as being this "flattening"
But, I think we should also recognize that there's problems with that kneejerk reaction. I think there are ways to give more of what fans of Harem games want in the context of SoC without flattening the game. That rather then demonize that position, to try to use it to build a better game. And if in the process I can help people like Ori who want a game that allows more expression of their fantasies that's a good thing.
So, I think there's place for everyone at the table. But, I urge people like Rivon not to sucumb to a temptation to deny someone the desire for a legitimate craving. While I urge people like Ori to see why the framing of some of it can come across as asking to "Flatten" the game, and why that can be offensive.