I must've missed that when it was announced, regardless it's still really silly to think they removed fighting because they were worried western audiences wouldn't buy the game.
They didn't worried if the western audience won't buy the game, they worried if the game will attract controversies and put them in very bad spot just like Rapelay years ago. Remember that Illusion still goes to Steam after all of it, but they only sell the lovey dovey title and keep all of the darker themed games for JP market only, DESPITE the popularity of it.
Games they keep:
1. AA series (they KNEW AA series is popular in the west and have big, vibrant mod community, despite the game is only sold in JP market).
2. Premium Play series (Premium Play, PP Darkness and Play Club) the "spiritual successor" of Biko and Rapelay.
All of that game is still have great graphics and play flawlessly when they enter Steam at 2018.
And when they enter Steam, ALL of their new games is lovey dovey games (Koikatsu series, AI Shoujo, VR Kanojo, HS2 Libido and Room Girls) that void of any dark themes.
How did we know that Illusion knew that their games is popular in the west? The very famous "Dear customers in foreign countries" welcome page of their homepage LOL (the first for a hentai game company doing that, followed closely then by many hentai game company afterward). They still keep that page and blocking foreign IP address even AFTER they sell their games in Steam. Why? Because they STILL sell their dark-themed games in Getchu and DMM and they don't want the western mob prying eyes looking at any of it.
So yeah they never worried about the sales but more afraid of the controversy shall it arise if they included more darker themes. But we knew they really mulled on adding it on Samabake because they still included the Evil personality and the eerie BGM.