I appreciate the transmigrator being aware of the romance flag he accidentally set up. Kinda weird how the heroine is all deredere for him compared to canon, but it's funny.
At least the hero still has his childhood friend. I prefer the osananajimi ships anyway.
...come to think of it, could the reason the positioning be off actually be because she was secretly placing the hero closer to herself as the temp captain?
		
		
	 
He is the strongest character in the game at that point. Maybe the final boss is stronger, but at the moment, among established characters, he is the strongest.
The FMC is going to treat him differently than she would a courageous, but still rather wimpy, kid.
As you say, the hero has the childhood friend, who it appears misses out if there's a non-harem ending, so it's a win for her too.
MC just has to play it cool, exploit every game system he can, and stay alive to get the girl (and maybe the final boss as well).