Actually, SLBP and Bakumatsu is similar when it comes to romance. I read some chapters of Bakumatsu (your translation, thanks for that) and it has a similar vibe to SLBP.
I played SLBP for about a year, then quit it for it's repetitive system.
There are some lack of consistency in this title, like the MC is a simple maid, but she gets way too much attention from the warlords, which often make me wonder that, "Why is only she?"
Well, I searched for some reasons and was surprised to found out that it is a common trait of voltage games, where mc almost miraculously becomes special. I played SLBP, princess in the mirror and tried some routes of Love365, and I saw this thing again and again, especially historical and fantasy settings. Sometimes it gets annoying how mc always get too much unnecessary attention, despite she is not involved with the story directly. As an example, in SLBP, you can see MC has zero involvement in almost every route. SLBP mc is also called and "observer MC" just like Bakuten, but it is only an excuse to cover their poor characterization of MC. What I mean is, you can definitely remember some LI of Voltage games (Like I have Masamune from SLBP and Simeon from Princess in the mirror), but you won't have any valid cause to remember the MCs. The formula Voltage always follow for their MCs are like: "kind", "pure", "sweet", "caring", "naive", but all of their MCs have this trait. And these MCs don't have any strong characteristics to remember them for a long time.
Maybe a short comparison will make sense. Ikesen Mai and SLBP mc. Who is more worth remembering?
Of course Mai. She has a great distinct personality, mixed with humor and intelligence. She is also kind, caring, sweet and pure, but her character is not blunt or vague. When I was in hiatus from SLBP for a short time, I completely forgot how the MC was in the game or how she works it out. Sadly, her personality is too easy to forget, where I can not forget Mai for once after installing ikesen. That is all there. And almost every Voltage MCs are like that.
The thing you told about voltage being notorious for declaring that mc and LI is in love at the epilogue--- so true 😅. I was squirming with agony in SLBP nobinaga's route; wondering the whole time when will they confess their feelings. But at the end, if was nobu kissing mc.....just thought, "How did this happen?"
I sometimes felt like, how did the mc and the LIs fall in love? The personality of most MCs is quite the same and dull. If they had a better quality mc, voltage games would have been really good.
Later, there comes the romantic tropes. I heard they have a tendency to have same romantic tropes, but so long, I found SLBP warlords quite distinct. Still, SLBP does not have that much quality route. I have mixed feelings over them. There are too much drama and less romance. But just as you say, less romance does not make an otome game quite appealing. People might get attractive to the historical setting and historical grounding of SLBP, but enjoying and otome game is all about the romance, not too much drama. It's my personal opinion though, of course there should be drama, but you cannot fill drama in every nook and cranny of the story to make it attractive. The drama in SLBP is of course attractive, but those are not in that good quality (The drama in Nobuanga and Kojuro's route killed me). Maybe this is the reason Ikesen is more popular.
I also totally agree that voltage tries to squeeze too much historical events in these short stories. Short chapters are their speciality and it is fun if you are busy. But they should expand the story if they want to describe the historical events in a little details, and it would have been best.
There is another issue. The reason I wonder how LIs and MCs fall in love is because their romance comes suddenly. It's....too suddenly. I never have this feeling in Cybird games. Who knows why I feel like wondering how they fell in love. I am not sure about the reason either, but I doubt I am the only one. Maybe the stories are too short? I would love it if their chapters would have been longer.
Another thing, I feel like Voltage games' translation is....a bit hard. English is my second language, so maybe there is that, but I don't quite understand their translation, especially in SLBP. But I don't have this problem with Cybird games. Not understanding the story is another reason why voltage is not for me 😭😭😭 (I really hoped I could enjoy them).
But still, Voltage of course has a big fandom, but in many ways, they are not that memorable. I heard somewhere a person saying they prefer quantity over quality (opposite of the Ikemen series), and that is the reason their stories seems choppy.
Sorry for this big rb, but I got a little carried away.
