The fact you have to explain this and as you say "no one seems to have caught up on" means it's pretty poor writing from the dev. If something needs extra explanation of other than what is presented in game, the dev is doing a bad job. That's true for any game not just this.
Hopefully the dev will improve on it as time progresses.
Agree, the writing leaves a lot to be disired. Maybe it will all come out okay once it's complete and we can see the whole picture in one sitting, but the way it's done now, nah.
He never needed to tell me about this though maybe because I'm partly a writer too (as a hobby) I did catch up on those little details... dunno, in any case, it was kind of hinted a lot in the game already and not only by that couple but by Candace (mc's ex-gf) in the last update.
Honestly Candace is what lawyers would call an unreliable witness. The "gay cover" is weak, it looks like the dev scrambled for something to justify her having another boyfriend and that was the best idea he could come up with without going back and re-writing parts and changing renders. This makes anything she says about it, just seem like reasons to justify it and try fix the damage. Sadly I fear the same weak fix will happen with Rosa and Kate too.
Well to be fair to dev he seems to have wanted to set up a number of ambiguous situations in game on purpose that will turn out good later when you get more information. So since it is on purpose it is not bad writing as such.
Only trouble with that is besides it can become a bit too much drama when every girl is problematic, is that we do not play the game in one sitting but with weeks or months in between, which tends to make those situations bigger instead of quickly or reasonably quickly resolved. That tends to make those situations to leave a worse taste in your mouth as in the other scenario when explanation is there an hour later and it is easier to overlook that you are at best a fifth priority as with that gay BF story and he has priority over MC for that girl for quite a long time.
Now she is free to have more important people in her life, but do you really want to end up with someone, that prioritizes others over you for years as your partner? It does not make her feel really interested in MC, whether she had sex with the other or not. More like I like you a bit as well, but not too much, whatever she says after those actions she took.
Edit: Now I am not saying dev can not turn that around if give her more and very good reasons for those actions, but since we have time to crystalize those thoughts and feelings for months before the explanation comes it will be much harder to take those feelings away if ever succeeds completely.
I disagree with you, purely because the dev seems to have had a target audience in mind and wrote a story for a different audience, hence all the "fixs" to undo the "damage" like changing the dream because people claimed it was too 3 letter vibey. Or the Candice gay cover, or Rosa or Kate all of which need to be explained or fixed to make people happy. Personally I didn't particular care one way or the other about the dream. I didn't mind how it went and it was just a dream, I rather hate the new version because the "fix" is weak. Really the whole dream should have been completely rewritten with something else or removed entirely.
To be fair the whole "gay cover" could have been planned from the start, but the way it's been done and revealed makes it look like putting a band-aid put on a broken leg and saying "there we go all better". I really do think the writing in a lot of places is really bad. Again take Candice and the whole "bar" scene. She call's him up because she wants to meet and sets a time. She has the letter for him, but doesn't bring it, even though the whole meeting was her idea. When she arrives and he asks her why she wanted to meet, what does she say? Nah I don't think nows the time to talk about it. This would have been a perfect time for her to mention the whole "gay cover" deal too, but no, she talks about how much she loved him and missed him if you take one interruption of the metaphor she used, or how much she got dicked down but missed his dick if you take another. I fully get the not having the letter is just a mechanism to give the MC a reason to visit her later, but it could have been done in so many other ways.
Honestly I'm really hoping there is some really good and unique reason for Rosa being at the deputy's house because the implication is very much that she went home with him after their date and had sex. We all old enough to know you don't go home and sleep over after a date to play board games or too tired or something. I really, really hope it's not another gay cover or even worse impotence /micro-penis reasons they did nothing. Because those last to imply intent, just like an attempted murderer is no better than a murderer, the only difference is one tried and failed, while the other succeeded. Romance lovers which this game markets itself for don't like the romance target to be involved with others, that's why the hatred for the 3 letter tag, but also most like their LI's to be virginal or at the very least non-slutty. Rosa is obviously not the former, so we hope she's the second, seeing her implied as sleeping over or intending but unable too sleep with deputy assclown would make her neither.
Of course it's the dev's choice to make the game as he sees fit and put whatever background he want's or do whatever, but it seems clear from the changes and fixes that he had a target audience and wrote his original story that doesn't meet their desires. Unfortunately with the way these vn's are made and released, "questionable" storylines, characters and incidents are always a double edged sword. To use the Candice example, do you build the story and reveal the truth in one update and avoid upsetting your audience, but maybe weakening the story? Or do you build it and reveal later and upset your audience and potentially lose support? Every dev should ask themselves that and make piece with their own answer before doing anything like that.
However the biggest issue the dev needs to fix before the releasing the next update, is remove that stupid role back block to choices. it doesn't make choices mean more or make you play with more intent or anything, it just means the dev is a dick for blocking it. Personally I try play games without wt's and unless I know a choice will absolutely lead to content I don't like, I almost always try all options when presented with a choice to see how the game unfolds when you do.