I've only had a couple of characters, one's I would expect to flirt with me, try to flirt with me on their own. Everyone else you have to seek it out in my experience. This really smacks of the "it's because of your search history dude" trope. Stop choosing flirty dialogue and getting fauxfended when they flirt back. I agree it seems a little easy to pursue some of the romance trees, but it really isn't in your face as much as these stupid articles would make it seem.
Every character can toggle visibility on helmets and toggle aesthetics as "camp" or "armor". Camp can be nude if you like. When toggled to camp it doesn't seem to effect stats in any way, just what they look like.
I mentioned this in another comment as well.. but...
Ultima IV is free on GOG: https://www.gog.com/en/game/ultima4
Also have you seen MoonRing? It's a very recently released game, very Ultima inspired game from one of the original devs on Fable.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2373630/Moonring/