Personally, I like how they handled this. Is there a world where the same message can be conveyed without resorting to this? Hell yeah. However, I am not particularly intelligent, so I can't think of any.
Having Mars experience what it feels like to be on that end, which to me is great. I like how differently they depicted the same scene of Mars grabbing a girl who needs help. On page 16, he was basically groping Ribbons and getting aroused, and after the realization, he did it again on page 30, but seeing how the girl is disturbed, he understands it and feels sick too.