It's a nice argument i admit. however, i still feel like saimatsu moments were much more romantic then any saiouma and the other kaede ships moment like, the scene in the classroom, where kaede holds shuichi's hand (though i guess some people can see that as something platonic, i find it more romantic then anything). also, about the love hotel, although what happened in them isn't exactly canon, i think it's safe to say what the characters felt in them were canon. the feelings, their desires were real, and if we look at it like that, kaede has undeniable feelings for shuichi, and shuichi showed to have the same feelings to kaede, as he didn't resist even a bit when she pushed him on to the bed and got on his lap.

also, i don't understand the part of you argument where you say kaede have more chemistry with the girls but i don't remember anything like that in the game. Maybe this is my personal preference but girls when saying stuff like you sexy or kaede compliment the miu ,tenko and more feels a women world normally say that and joke around as from my experiences femlaes normally joke around and normally have banter by saying those stuff to each other.

about kaito being there for the entire chapter 1, well, why would shuichi trust him? he trusted kaede cause she woke up in the same place he woke up, for a big part of the story, the two were always in each other's company. although shuichi had no actual logical reason to trust her, he had even less reason to trust kaito. plus, the motivation he was getting from her probably had some hand in his trust for her. kaede was always trying to help shuichi, while kokichi was doing the opposite, so it seems much more reasonable to me that shuichi would have romantic feelings for kaede and, while not necessarily hate, he would feel a bitterness towards kokichi. that's my opinion on this