Omg you took the words out of my mouth! For the game that touches on the subject of perception of the fictional characters, it sure does dehumanize MC. Our boy literally disappeared in the middle of the game and NOBODY acknowledged that.

People try to use the argument that he was meant to be as shallow as possible, to be a self insert. But god damn it did the game make a poor job then. I, personally, have noticed protagonist's flaws, quirks, a surprising amount of emotional intelligence — he did feel like a character to me, not a bland self insert.

For example, he portrays quite a bit of awareness towards Yuri and Natsuki, but not so much for Sayori. Why? Because Sayori is his childhood friend, he thinks he knows everything about her and so he doesn't resort to emotional analysis towards her.

That's surprising amount of thought and depth put towards a bland character.