I like romance in games but it doesn't bother me that they're not in PoE. A well written romance between a NPC and the PC would take a lot of time that I would prefer be used to write more interesting quests or companions rather than romantic dialogue. Although, I'm mildly disappointed because Obsidian is the only developer that creates the type of romances in games that I enjoy the most. The romances in Kotor 2 and Nwn 2 weren't ideal or happy relationships which is something that is rarely explored in RPGs. The person you could romance could be possessive, obsessive, jealous, cruel, or just an outright unstable person. The problem with those romances, though, was that there wasn't a conclusion and they weren't fully developed.