I will say that I don't trust Kotaro with "having a say" but that's because he's an idiot who likes him both but is afraid of committing.
Otherwise yes, using something like a beauty pageant just sounds like an excuse on the part of the author/artist to draw girls in things like dresses and (likely) bikinis for the sake of fan service.
Yep.
Clearly.
And I guess we'll take it, but I wonder how many readers who actually read this for the titillation? Hmmm. What tags are there for this manga ...? "Suggestive" ... not really a draw for the hentai readers. Maybe for the "ecchi" audience? Oh well.