Um, no, they wouldn’t. Because it’s a game and the author is giving them as a RO. I mean, unless the author just wants to torture the MC or ruin the player’s experience. Since that’s kind of the point of offering a RO? Instead–again, this is to me–it seems like the author is making the MC an intruder on an otherwise perfect relationship. Others have said the same.
And I don’t see the point in beating this dead horse. This is how I see it and you aren’t going to change my mind. Just as I’m not going to change yours.
For SSW1, I think the point of that game is that the MC is a bumpkin who has no talent and is on the run. It’s not about being a worthless piece of shit, it’s about becoming something more. As for the soul stone… while I agree that it sucks that the MC can either accept the stone or die, the name of the game literally includes the soul stone, so I figure it’s kind of a given and I just have to suspend disbelief (kinda like in ME3 where you could either accept one of the shitty options from the overpowered god-child in the machine or Shepard dies). And I found ME3 far less palatable.
I can see it, and I agree with it to a point. The thing is, I don’t need to read about their love lives in a game where I’m RPing the MC. The other ROs’ romances aren’t interesting to me as a reader and, as a player, they pretty much negate my desire to play their routes and, sometimes, the game as a whole.
I also get that an author might not “feel” they are writing canon when they have ROs hook up with each other if the MC doesn’t choose them, but my point is that, despite their intentions, it seems like they mean it to be canon. And interpretation when reading often is more–I won’t say real, but is stronger–than intent. Therein lies the problem.
An example… I flat out asked one of the writers of Andromeda 6 about this–if your MC romances someone other than Damon, he ends up with his childhood best friend. The two of them are clearly close, even on his route, to the point where the MC sometimes feels like an intruder, and it left me feeling squicky about playing his route because I felt like my MC was screwing up the writer’s canon of Damon + Alisa = true love. Almost quit the game entirely but decided to ask, and was told that was not the intention. I gave it another go and still, despite her clear comments about it not being canon, feel like my MC is in the way. So I ditched that MC and made one each for Cal and Vexx, because they’re pretty damned cool, anyway. But I won’t play Damon’s route, no matter how awesome the character is because the way it’s written makes it seem that Damon and Alisa are canon.
Not sure if you understand what I’m saying there or not? I mean, I get what you’re saying about an author perceiving things differently than I (and others) interpret them, and it’s a valid point (I’ve always argued it’s difficult to know what authors long dead meant by their writings and, if you can justify your interpretation with the given text, it should be a valid interpretation, but I’d argue with a brick wall, lol). But perception often differs from intent, and it’s shaped by our own experiences and thought processes.
I guess it boils down to this for me: if the text reflects something as happening a certain way (i.e., ROs with another RO) when there is not an outside force (i.e., the MC) to interfere with it, I take that as canon. The author may not intend it that way, but unless there is something in text to dispute it, that’s my perception of the situation.
There are always intended consequences. And they should follow from player choice, but typically those choices are story-related, are they not? Like… the MC decides to stab an attacker, but that attacker was crucial to delivering some needed object for the MC to succeed. That’s an understandable consequence that has a crap end.
But NPC romances? They aren’t crucial to the plot (if they are, then okay, I can probably get onboard!) and are just something thrown in for supposed depth (I don’t see it). I get that authors may love them. I get that some readers/players may love them. I don’t and they can ruin a game for me, leaving me with no desire to play any of it. It’s as simple as that.
You are correct and it was poorly worded. So I apologize for my wording of it. I simply meant that it would be nice (and courteous, for that matter), if authors would stick a warning up if the ROs are going to run off with other NPCs. And, along the same line, let us know which ones will do it so we can either avoid those or avoid the game, if it causes us not to enjoy a game.
But, as you said, you owe us nothing. No warning, no head’s up, nothing. Would it be nice to get that? Sure. But it’d be nice to win the lottery, too, and that’s highly unlikely.
So if an author chooses to warn people of such things, it would be appreciated. If not, then people like me would be better off just not buying games until we know what the deal is. Play the WIP and wait to see if others bitch about such things before shucking out our hard-earned money for something we won’t enjoy.
Say it came up when you googled their names or something. I’ll take that bullet for you in exchange for more Aki! 
Aki’s definitely and by far best girl, so what Ignis and Seeker get up to consensually is up to them.