I'm fine with slowburns, and I really don't mind the update rate as well.
It's only when the two combine, like with AWAM that it becomes a bit of a nuisance.
In my opinion, if you know that the updates will be few and far between and the story is also moving at a slow pace, it's not a bad idea to introduce some easy to achieve sex scenes, either in the form of a flashback with an earlier relationship or with a side character which isn't going to play an important role in the story.
But that's just my opinion and what I like in games. And I'm fine with waiting, if the characters and story are good enough.
That's as long as I'm not paying for anything, Oceanlab is very open about the development speed and how he wants to tell his story, so I knew I would become frustrated, if I actually invested money in this, so I chose not to and mooch of others, as you do on a pirate site.
To sum it up, story and characters are good, you know it's a slowburn and there won't be a lot of sex scenes early on, so if you have a problem with that, better not become a patron, if you aren't a patron and the dev is open and honest about how he works and how the game will progress, you really don't have a lot of reasons to complain.
There are so many games to play while waiting, most of the time I barely manage to keep up with the updates to games I like and checking out new ones.