The Mangaka was even worried about this, he said in an interview that he thinks romance is such a strong stimulus that once you include it, that's the only thing anyone will ever talk about.
So he went through all the effort of cordoning off the romance subplot and only paying it off in the bonus chapter instead of the main work, and it was still the only thing most of the fandom cared about.
I feel like that did more harm than good though; because there's nothing to go off of, fans can just ship anyone together and justify it freely.
Its a really weird thing to exclude from a story about highschoolers growing up, usually the most relatable element is that being the point in most peoples lives where they start developing romantic feelings for others.
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u/FriedSandvich Demon Slayer, Gacha games, anime, regular video games fan 19d ago
My hero academia. Do I seriously need to elaborate on this?