For me it's not sandbox, it's freeroam like Lof had but very extended. I don't like it and you can lose a Li very easily for not clicking in a certain place or at a certain time.
Lose is a strong word, since so far we only know about the repercussions for the first chapter. So far the big things for the freeroam are a) are you going to help the guy with the boat and show that you're a nice guy; b) who will be your "first friend" and show you around town and thus be the people you meet at the club; c) do you meet one character at the phone store or not until later at the VIP lounge; and d) did you clean up the main bedroom in your trailer in case you happen to go home from the club with one particular girl.
I'll admit that D is a little tricky, since it requires you to sort out how to maneuver around the blocked hallway, but it's also not a huge deal. It's chapter 1, so do another playthrough if you mess that up your first time and are heartset on it. B is the biggest one, since you seem to bond more with either the girls from the boat or the girl on the dock based on whom you talk to, and it determines whom you can leave the club with, but that's just a plain old story branch, it's not that hard to figure out, and you meet the others at the club regardless so there's no reason to assume this cuts you off from them forever. Indeed, C strongly suggests that it really doesn't matter that much, since you get a second chance at that "meet cute" regardless of how you started. And A is just a simple classic morality test -- do you trade some of your resources (free roam time) to do a good thing. The only problem with it is that in games the cliche is that "do the good thing" is almost always the obvious right answer, but I'm okay with that being something video games teach us.