???
I don't get it. Why do you think they don't matter?
The first one literally splits the game in two for quite a while. Changes in the MC's personality are already starting to trigger certain events. The same thing will happen later with the relationship stuff. The results of the competitions matter to the point that characters' lives or deaths depend on them...
I really don't know what you're talking about.
MC can die if you make a bad decision at some point, and that's been in the game for a long time already... I don't know what you're expecting.