Well, the idea for the scene is that Kei wants to distract Alice because he thinks she's too proud to accept his help, or at least would prefer not to have to worry her about what is happening, so I don't think just not having it fulfills the point of the scene.
Admittingly I wanted to allow for more choices in the route near the end but I had a specific trajectory of the story in mind and I couldn't really accomplish that if the player was allowed to make decisions that would thwart the direction like they could in the early route.
As for new outfits, I had planned on more coming out this update in October but the artist I am working with is busy. There are two more planned for size 6 (swimsuit and casual spring dress) and her size 2 Matsuri Yukata.