Not trying to be insulting this is an honest question.
Are you ace? I'm asking because you don't seem to know what nsfw adds to a story that is labeled as romance.
To answer your question what it brings to me is the consummation of the relationship for the characters involved.
No, I'm not ace and Is not that I don't understand, I do believe that a nsfw scene placed at the right moment can do that, but more often than not it just feel like it interrupts the story.
Personally when it comes to romance I prefer things like the plushie scene with Rhoun rather than just sex... and also I got extremely frustrated trying to read the smoke room only to be bombarded every two seconds with nsfw scenes :/
I still don't know how that thing and Arches were made by the same people.
I enjoyed the smoke room! I would expect lots of nsfw scenes from a story where the main character is a literal whore... Perhaps consider that maybe a story about a male prostitute just isn't a story that's meant for you?
But not to get side tracked, unless the main characters are ace then having no sex scenes, to me just makes it feel more like awkward friend zone story rather than a romance.
P.S. Arches is not labeled as a romance.
Omg this! Ahahaha I always thought it was crazy people complained about the NSFW scenes "bombarding them" when reading TSR, when the protagonist is a literal prostitute. LMFAO! Oh and Nikolai is DADDYING! Lmfao! Loved his route, and liked the wolf's too, can't wait to see where his story ends up. I've only done the two so far, still have yet to do the other two dudes.
So, Kudzu, obviously you know yourself better than I do (especially since I don't know you at all) and good faith self-identification is always valid, but I really do recommend reading up on asexual spectrum identities and reevaluating whether any of them fit you. Because it absolutely does sound to me like you're somewhere on the asexual spectrum.