To answer the OP post. I don’t view it as punishing the player when a certain NPC requires the PC to have a certain “sexual orientation” “personalities” “gender identity” “Etc.”
As a hobby writer of a story/game it’s not just about coding it for the player to enjoy the game, but I’ve already established the NPCs personalities, gender identity, as well as their preferred sexual orientation. It’s not just a matter of flipping their gender or making the NPCs “Playersexual” basically means, whatever race or gender the player’s character is, the romanceable character finds the player character attractive and can be romanced. I wrote the NPC to be like that and to just make the NPC “Playersexual” just because people got mad/disappointed/heartbroken/deceived/etc. whatever emotion, to me it feels like an unnecessary fan service.
I created the NPCs because they have a purpose, more than their RO status. They need to have the worth? (Not sure if that is a correct word) to function for the story. They need to let their individuality be known else it would seem like despite being “NPC A” or “NPC B” the end result is that it’s the same thing. I would want to showcase to the Player that the NPCs be RO or not are characters that the Player Character needs understand to really know who they are and a realization as to why they are like that.
I hope I made sense with whatever I wrote if not… well then here are some topics that I have located that would be helpful or at least I think they are helpful with the OP’s topic. The discussion also tackle/s/d issues regarding RO options for games and the availability of them. Be it because of their “sexual orientation” “personalities” “gender identity” “Etc.”
Two Questions: Romantic and Point of View
Is being able to be Bi or Gay that important?
Romantic Options
How do you feel about gender-locked romances?