Either this leads to progress in their relationship, which is pog compared to like hundreds of other manga that make you wait 400 chapters for them to even look at each other/hold hand/something. Or it will be brushed off next chapter, and we will get a 400 chapter long bait and switch.
Personally I rather get 10 40 chapter romance stories with a good progression and no stupidity/forced drama for sake of making story longer, than 1 400 chapters slog.
Its why I find Amagami SS and Seiren one of my best romances. One has like 36+2 episodes in two seasons, 6 separate girls "parallel universe" type of stories 4+2 episode long, and 2 specials for other girls, and second is same universe different girls, 3 stories 4 episode long each. Both have some drama, but they are like compressed lovable short rom-coms.
Photokano is similar, thou it has like few episodes of "common introduction route" and then 1-2 episode long "each girl route" - so more like a VN kinda thing. Thou to be fair it was to short, and the 2 episode endings were the "drama heavy" ones. So some normal romance anime could slip above it, but would still be below Amagami/Seiren.