Yeah, totally get it - it's hard to zoom out once you've been zoomed in for so long. For what it's worth, I think this probably did connect well as a tie-in for folks that are in-the-know, so to speak, but maybe this would have been better targeted specifically for them rather than as a jam entry that ostensibly required no prior knowledge.
To follow up on a few of your points:
Boxing: There were actually quite a few parts of that scene that didn't really work for someone with experience around the sport. I didn't mind too much since that's clearly not the point of the story, but there were details you didn't include that could've been helpful for multiple reasons. For example, you don't mention putting on wraps before putting the gloves on, and having this in there could do a few things: 1) emphasize that Patrice hasn't boxed in a while (after a hiatus I always fuck up my wraps like four times getting back into it); 2) exacerbate the problem by having him be nervous about Oliver; and 3) give them a cute moment where Oliver helps him with the wraps.
Liam: Got it, did not come through for me that they were childhood friends. I got the impression that they became friends when Patrice started dating Nia, which is why that friendship dropping off when the relationship did didn't seem too outlandish to me. And yeah, I get the offhand sex joke thing, but Patrice comes off as way more aggressive and persistent in that than anyone I know personally.
Love: I see your point, but I also think caution is important too. Like, if you've only known someone for a day, you don't know them well enough to know if you love them or not. If you feel like you do, you're more in love with a version of that person that you've constructed in your head than the actual person. That ideal and the actual person might turn out to be the same thing, and if so, great, but jumping to that point is creating unrealistic expectations and potentially setting the relationship up for failure. That's my perspective, but like I said, I can also see the optimism over pragmatism angle too, especially in fiction.
Appreciate the in-depth response though! Love to see the engagement from devs on here.