Inserting a childhood friend character, a catgirl, and a loli while another one of the main cast enters vaguely 'flirty' territory with her doesn't sound like they were appealing to Western tastes. SO4 is better described as a 'fuck up', the tech demo looked way more like appealing to western tastes.
I do find it funny not even PR-speak wouldn't stop Kobayashi from gently tossing it aside though.