In a regular playthrough of BG3 of 60-100 hours you would encounter perhaps 10 minutes of on screen smut. Out of a 1000+ hours in the game I have spent less than 1 hour watching sex or smut on the screen. I appreciate that the intimacy brings more layers to the characters and adds to their personality, but I think it generates a very disproportionate amount of discourse and most of that discourse simply boils down to that people like and enjoy different things and if you don't enjoy it, you can just say "no thanks, I'll pass".
Thats a very short sighted view.
The need for smut and "romance" has driven a lot of BG3s design.
From the companion selection that is limited to attractive people (no dwarves, other short races or dragonborn), their shallow personalities that are always willing, Halsin as a whole being made into a companion because of EA players thirsting for him with "sex" being his only personality trait to the post game support which was mire focused on adding kisses than to fix some of the glaring plot holes of the game.
And then Larian even abandoned their artistic integrity when they caved to the simps and changed the Astarion kiss scene.
So for those "10 minutes" as you call them and outsized amount if design resources were used, to the detriment of other, more important aspects of the game.
