Mary was never kidnapped. She went to the gym to work out (which was in her dialogue when she was the FMC in one of the portions of the game and in the note she left on the fridge):
'Haven't heard back from Gerda so went to the Gym a bit earlier today!'
Yes, Tiffany was drunk and under the influence of a drug at the bar the one night that the MC rescues her before things got bad.
As I said in my reply to you that those two scenes (Mary at the Gym and Tiffany at the Bar) lend toward the possibility of NTR which are less than 15 minutes of playtime in a game that spans multiples of tens of hours of playtime (if people don't skip dialogue).
The Cabal is the overarching plot and they aren't explicitly targeting any of the MCs love interests. Walter is part of that overarching plot. Darnell and the new thug are low level players in it. The stuff against Mary and Tiffany appear as just antagonist scenes that are to create friction between the MC and Darnell - not any part of the actual plot of the game (the cabal, the pills, etc).
Mary goes to the gym, she can't leave because it'll give the jig up about the remote control. I don't want to argue about what kidnapping is, you know the scene I mean and that the MC has to come rescue her sharpish before the bad guy gets his way like you said. Can't remember all the details around Tiffany but I'm pretty sure it's implied she's been drugged with the intention of them fucking her. Again, MC to the rescue.
I'm trying not to get into an argument at crossed purposes, so what I'm saying is that these are important scenes imo in that they convey the threat of the bad guys and develop the narrative of that impending issue. I'm NOT saying I think these are NTR, I'm just saying these are among the scenes that people have been complaining about. Whether they're right or wrong that this is NTR is kind of irrelevant, but these have been part of the controversy and these are some of the people this move is supposed to appease.
What I'm getting at is...I don't think that can be avoided unless the game takes a huge change in direction. Things like Tiffany in the club is going to continue, but things like Tiffany in the club is going to result in people repeating "Ugh, I thought this game had no NTR! That was way too close!". That's what I took you to mean by "NTR dangling" and that's why I'm saying it's going to be in the game unless major things change.
When I say LIs have been targeted, I mean Mary and Tiffany have been targeted in the ways you've listed. No actual NTR has happened in my view, but that's what's stirred up all the fuss and I don't see it going away. I don't think splitting the game in two is going to do anything to resolve the complaints.
