As I am free to give them shit for it.
If the game suddenly turned into a body horror with straight romance - you wouldn't be defending the developer, you would be up in arms, because the game would be ruined for you. I'm exaggerating to make my point obvious, of course, but it doesn't really matter how far off from your expectation the game goes, when it's already out of bounds of acceptable for you.
The original designs were a promise. To change that - is to betray the trust of the community. This is why a good developer includes the community in the decision-making process when it's something that can make or break the entire project for large portions of the fanbase.
Monchi didn't do it, which mean he doesn't respect us. We didn't even get a heads-up, it was just dropped on us - in his eyes we don't even deserve a fucking word of warning from his fucking majesty.
So it's really bizarre that all these people with a para-social relationship with a person who doesn't give a shit about them are defending him.