This thread is really long, and branches into various topics both about and not about the OP. So I'm not sure if this has be said already yet because I got lost really easy trying to read through everything.
Something I see among artist / author spaces that sometimes leads to this. Is that it's really common for when artists are start projects, even more so if it's one of their first projects to go public. That they will follow a lot of rules, specifically untold (or blatant) publishing rules on what is marketable in your story. 'hetro leads' is one that is dying out BUT the 'Not having your queer characters talking about them selves being queer unless the series is specifically a gay romance and that romance is the main plot' is still one that is going pretty strong.
If these artists manage to stick with their comics, and have been managing to constantly update and work on their webcomics for over a few years, they start to question these rules and why they are following them, especially when they are releasing on what is mostly a self publishing platform with other creators who specifically choose this platform as to not be hindered by these publishing rules. Add that to how much work making a comic takes and they come to the realization that 'if I'm working as hard as I am on this comic, I should be able to make my characters be as gay as I want them to be.'
So relationships that were kept mostly behind the scenes, slightly hinted at, or even just stayed in the authors head, start getting put into the comics, and though to the reader it may feel like it's coming out of no where, to the author, the characters have ALWAYS been like this, it just took them a while to realize that because they are on a self publishing medium where they don't have to appeal to what is considered acceptable in the mainstream mindset, that they are allowed to do this with their stories. For indi webcomics, it's not usually 'jumping on the bandwagon' or 'attempting to appeal to a new audience' it's plot and relationships that were always there, but were being hidden or avoided by the author for the sake of fitting a mainstream appeal criteria, until they realized they did not have to anymore.
That may be where most of the disconnect from reader to artist is coming from in concerns to these romances. The authors know the characters a lot better than the readers, the characters don't have to announce to the creators that they are gay, or have a crush on someone, the authors already know, and for them, it's always been like that. So adding it in just feels like mentioning something that has ALWAYS existed. While readers, who are usually denied this information, are caught of guard when it finally is put into the plot.
It's clunky writing sometimes when adding it in, and weird when authors go back to change pages to make the relationships more obvious, but in general for most artists, especially queer artists (that are used to being in the closet or being careful about how they talk around certain people) that I have talked to, they're not changing the story, they're adding stuff that existed but was likely omitted to fit the self imposed criteria new authors try to fit to reach the widest audience possible.
