I just don't get how a 40 something year old guy couldn't get over his childhood crush. It's like he has the mind of a twelve year old.
His obsession over her is too much to the point that he is acting like a simp. I mean there is nothing wrong about liking the character of a person to the point of an attraction, but getting emotionally disfigured in the near proximity of that person to the point of openly favoring that person in front of his girlfriend is a bit too much.
My Dude, that's the point.
Mcs unhealthy obsession with catherine is arguably the starting point of how mc ended up in the shitty life he ended up in.
It destroyed his relationship with Victoria, turning her into his eternal bully in school.
The bullying became a self-repeating cycle. The more Victoria was bullying him, the more mc would flee into gaming and perversions. Which in turn would make him less and less like the guy that Victoria originally fell in love with. Which in turn makes Victoria more angry resulting in harsher bullying.
Victoria's bullying ostracised him from most people in school aside from leo. We know as soon as highschool roled around even Steph wasn't hanging with them anymore.
And once school finished he ended up as an adult who had nothing more on his mind aside perversions and videogames. An Adult who went through school without learning to properly socialize like everybody else did, turning him to the dark path he was on in his original timeline.
His obsession with catherine isn't the only reason for this. OG Mcs inability to really look at and emphasize with the people around him is also largely to blame, since he had plenty opportunity to turn things around and yet didn't.