Stop living in the trenches of idealism. It's gonna wreck you. The real world is harsh and unforgiving and in a case such as this, the product you wish to consume is a result of that harsh and unforgiving world. The real working world is harsh and even harsher if you're Japanese.
If you ever want to see a chapter of a romance manga as absolutely goddamn epic as the pocky game, just let them cook, and get healthy.
We all want to see this keep going and we all want the tropes out of the way and the sugar dish to tip over and cover us in pure diabetic coma. Go out of your way to buy merch, and leave feedback on the author's twitter. It's open, and even if you don't speak a lick of Japanese, you can use OpenAI to translate things into "casual japanese" if you ask it to, and leave your thoughts there.
Be constructive, understand the situation, and form what you want. Mangakas are very receptive to their fans.