Oddly enough, I am most fond of those early Infinity Engine romances. While, ekhm, range of available romance might have been heavily limiting roleplaying options, I did feel that BG2 and Planescape did give enough space for their dating moments to feel genuine and engaging. As games gave more control to players over how relationships progres and made more and more companions romancable, thing took a turn into artificial and absurd. Late Bioware adventures turned into weird soap operas where every creature you meet wants the piece of PC.
Deadfire has some neat concepts, tying romances into players reputation and relationship system, but it didn't quite work. Especially on launch.
What I don't need is an awkward token sex scene. Which I am not worried about getting. Whatever worries I have about Larian, I am sure they will come up with something creative. I want more of "winning Shani over" from Heart of Stone, and less "gratitious boat sex with Shani" from Heart of Stone.
I agree with your assessment of the degeneration of Bioware romances. In danger of becoming political, I think this has much to do with Bioware's super progressive ideology where diversity in the end seemed to matter more than good storytelling. I would much rather have fewer and more involving friendships/enmities and much fewer and deeper romances. And in a way that isn't necessarily an end-goal in of itself where you have scored enough "attitude points" and in the end rewarded with the obligatory cut to dark love scene, but a natural and organic evolving romance progressing beyond the love scene. This will get a player emotionally invested and potentially make for a great story plot.
I never got into any Obsidian game partly because they, in particular Josh Sawyer's design vision is that of a long-standing pathological antipathy against romances. I knew Deadfire would be different in this regard, but too much water under the bridge.
