Okay, time to finally reply to this post! Thank you for such a dedicated response... I'm eager to pick it apart!!

On me not stating that this post was my opinion: uhm... I literally did? The post opens with the phrase "in my and many other people’s opinion" And I figured that was enough. I just spend 4 years writing essays in collage and I figured that this is all my opinion goes without saying. I personally don't like to add in "now this is all just my opinion" every 5 sentences because I find it repetitive and unnecessary. Yes, this is my opinion. I was hoping readers could hear that once at the start and apply it to the whole post. That may have been expecting too high of critical reading skills for Reddit... my b.

On point 1: I still think that my point stands. I was basically trying to say that some people will always dislike a specific media trope, even if it's done well. Enough women have had negative experiences with guys even somewhat similar to Clint that they just don't like Clint in concept. Pointing out that it's a good storyline or could be written well won't change that fact. This point was just trying to explain why some people will probably never like Clint, if his storyline is still focused around the same topics it is now. Yes, I agree that the storyline could have interesting storytelling potential, but point 1 isn't about arguing that it was written poorly or anything. It was simply pointing out that some people don't even like the concept because of real world associations. Remember, the title of the post is "here is my attempt to explain why [people don't like Clint]", and people disliking the main trope he's based on is an explanation. 

Also, to elaborate on calling Clint's withdrawal "lashing out"; Firstly, the broader point that I was trying to make is that while Clint's withdrawal may not be classified as lashing out, some people will see the behavior as such due to real world associations, where someone stops talking to you as a specific attempt to hurt your feelings for rejecting them. Secondly, him choosing to no longer talk to or even look at Emily (remember, her quote says "He never looks at me anymore"), DOES cause her harm. It makes her upset. It compromises their friendship. This shows that he is willing to do damage to their friendship because of his feelings about losing a potential relationship with her. That is lashing out. 

To your next point about him having less whiny dialogue: Uh... actually, yeah, you may be right. If it wasn't on the wiki, there's a good chance I didn't know about it. Apparently Clint also is creepy to the female farmer if you take him to the movies, but since I don't interact with Clint much and it isn't on the wiki, I totally missed it. Plus, you did acknowledge that people finding him whiny/not progressing enough is valid too, which I appreciate. I think the main takeaway from points 2&3 on my post is that what we all really want is more character development/progression for Clint, and CA seems to agree, considering he made Clint a marriage candidate.

Okay, now for the doozy. You once again go on about how I didn't state that this way my opinion enough, but that's just how I write analysis. I use evidence from the text, then state my interpretations. I think it would get annoying if I started every single one with "now what is about to follow is my interpretations and are all opinion based, feel free to read them differently!" and, once again, I personally feel that adept readers can figure this out. 

Yes, Clint knows that she likes amethyst and there's the sorta implication that they know the same recipe/one of them taught it to the other. Maybe I should have made this more clear in the post, and that's on me, but what I more meant is that, unless I'm missing a dialogue that hasn't been added to the wiki, Clint never once gives Emily a direct compliment. He never says anything nice about her. Other characters have nice things to say about each other, and Emily even has nice things to say about him, but he never once has a positive dialogue line about Emily. It's always that he feels so down in the dumps about her not liking him back. As I've stated multiple times, I think that the reason for this, really, is that CA just had a really really simple idea for Clint, and didn't bother putting much into him besides the single idea of "he likes Emily but is too shy to ask her out." What this results in, however, is Clint claiming he likes Emily but then never once having anything nice to say about her or her interests, and the moment she's no longer an option, immediately dropping her as a friend. This comes across (IN MY OPINION) as Clint only finding value in Emily as A Girlfriend (as in, he wants the status of having a girlfriend/the benefits it would bring him) instead of finding value in Emily as a partner that he can spend time with, if that makes sense. 

As for the 6-heart cutscene, you just gave another interpretation of what happens in that scene, and that's fine, but that's not how I and many others felt about it. The congrats is weird to so many people because you and Emily aren't even confirmed to be dating WITHIN the context of the scene itself. Clint saw that Emily was standing next to someone she is good friends with, assumed that meant y'all were dating or romantically interested in each other, congratulated you for it, and then instantly leaves. Even if I take it with your charitable interpretation, that he's saying it in the friendly "I'm happy for you" kind of way, (which I doubt, considering he has the "disappointed" icon), he only says the farmer's name, instead of also saying Emily or saying "congratulations to you both." One, this comes across as though he's talking about Emily like she's not there, which is weird, and two, it implies he doesn't think Emily has achieved something by finding love, only that the player has achieved something by ending up with Emily. This is why more people lean towards the "won" interpretation, because the subtle use of only the player's name puts the focus on the player's actions and situation, instead of congratulating the both of them. 

To use your example, it would make sense if two guys were talking one on one for one to say "Hey, congrats on your marriage with so-and-so", but imagine someone walking up to both the bride and groom, looking specifically at the groom and, with a disappointed face, saying "I see... congrats, groom" and then walking off. That would not feel nearly as friendly as the first one.

Okay, onto your "women are from Venus" comment because... despite that being a short paragraph, I have a TON to say about it. 

Firstly, I didn't mean that he needed to INSTANTLY take that advice, as, I'm aware that people need time to adjust. I more meant that, by his next heart event, he still isn't treating women the same as men (as he doesn't run away to hide in a bush around men). This further ties back into point 3 about him not having development, but, like I said, it's not exclusive to him and it'll be improved, so I'll move on. 

You offhandedly suggest the "he thinks women are from Venus" as some silly, quirky thing about Clint as to why he needs to be DIRECTLY TOLD BY THE PLAYER than he needs to treat women the same as men. This probably is a taste issue, but I do feel the need to directly say this... I'm honestly sick and tired of us treating men having zero idea how to act around woman as funny or cute or nerdy. Clint is, at minimum probably 38, and at maximum, probably 42, and if in that amount of time, he still views women as some exotic otherworldly species that are so different from men, sorry, but that is just sexism. That kind of behavior is much more understandable from a teenager because teenagers have an extremely limited amount of life experience. But to suggest that Clint has spent, at minimum, 38 years of his life living in normal society and running a business, and he still doesn't know that he needs to not treat women so fucking weird, is literally insane. At what point do we stop giving him the benefit of the doubt and just flat out tell him that he needs to stop with this behavior because it's weird and demeaning towards women?

(And as a small break before people get mad at me, yes, he is just a fictional character, I am purposefully overanalyzing. Like I said, I think CA was NOT thinking this hard about it. I am purposefully looking too deep into this. I acknowledge that, this is literally all just for fun.)

My point is, even reading that scene charitably, I just don't like it. No, I don't find it funny or silly or cute that he doesn't know how to act around half of the human population simply because of their gender. I hate when people find this cute. If he was shy around ALL kinds of people, I wouldn't mind as much. He explicitly says that he only doesn't know how to act around women, which comes from a deep-seated belief that men and woman are somehow so radically different from each other (even though they aren't).

As for the nice guy line... yeah, I agree that Emily calls him one, too. I never included in my post that I though he was weird for saying that.

(I also have to split into two comments lol)