For the first suggestion, if you do accept it, I would make the following bonuses (one for normal play and one for combat) for choosing a starting characteristic:
1) Strength - The protagonist, thanks to his high stamina, is able to visit many more places and do many more things in a day. Damage from strong attacks during combat is also increased.
2) Intelligence - Increases the amount of money that the protagonist receives for working for Sara or Kat, because their work is related to intellectual activity, respectively, thanks to the high intelligence of the protagonist, you can have time to do much more work. During combat, you can always see one of the actions your enemy will take (the Protagonist can guess whether the enemy will attack or defend).
3) Charisma - Weapon and armor prices will be reduced (I understand that in the future in the game you can buy armor and weapons). Also, as I understand it, the game will implement attacks of bandits, but thanks to charisma, the hero can try to avoid fighting with them.
4) Kindness - By doing guild quests in places where other characters are at the moment, there is a chance to increase the love (or friendship) for the hero from the character who was in this location (for example, if the quest must be done near the school, if you do it in the daytime, when Liz is at school, her love, because she sees that you help other people, will increase).
I can't think of how the combat system would be affected by choosing this characteristic.
5) Coordination - When visiting a location for the first time, there is a chance that the protagonist, thanks to attentiveness, will find money or other items hidden by someone (In the story, as far as I remember, most of the men were drafted to the war, some of them could hide valuable things that no one took them); Also increases the damage from quick attacks, because thanks to high agility, the protagonist will be able to make a really fast and unexpected blow to his opponent.
About my third suggestion - in addition to Liz, Ann, Mira and Kat, I would also change Scarlett's phrase, since she can't physically forget you.
I realize that what I'm suggesting is very difficult to implement, so I'm not forcing you to implement my ideas.
I'm just trying to make an already pretty good game better, so I think even partial implementation of my suggestions will make the game much more interesting and thoughtful.
Thank you for reading all the feedback, I promise not to write any more huge texts :)