Maybe I’ve been betrayed by too many romance manga, but...when every possible love interest is a good person and only one is a controlling asshole, a lot of authors favor the asshole because it drives more conflict. The prince is awful, and all of the other guys are genuinely good people. They also seem like they’ll respect her wishes and continue to be her friends if she doesn’t date them , which to me is really rare in stories like this. Fingers crossed that the prince is not the ML.