I just finished Burning Shores today and it's great. They rush the relationship a little bit because it's a DLC (I feel like it should've been a part of the main game and that would've given them the space for the relationship to play out on its own) but it's done well and is an actual relationship that's forming rather than fan service. Aloy is super awkward realizing she's developed feelings for someone which is very humanizing for a gal whose sole purpose in life has been saving the world even when it didn't want or deserve saving. The writers must've been gen x or millenials because there's that inescapable fear of being wrong about someone you have feelings for that happens to be the same sex as you present that I don't think would've necessarily been expressed by a lot of younger writers because it's not as big of deal to hit on your best friend only to find out they're straight these days.
Also, you get to decide whether or not Aloy is gay or whether or not she's ready for a relationship which is kind of a punt by the devs who were probably scared of exactly what happened. The review bombers aren't 'gamers' but rather angry conservatives who want to gatekeep anything to do with sci-fi, fantasy, gaming, comics etc. because they think it's their sole property. They can fuck right off with that shit. One of the best gay relationships was in Ghost of Tsushima but Ghost of Tsushima wasn't singled out ahead of time by the culture warriors who whined about Aloy not being sexy enough for them. Their real problem was always that Aloy was a normal girl/woman. In retrospect, Aloy being gay is a rather hilarious answer to angry dudes who only want to see female heroes if they have jangling boobies and signal sexual availability to them.
Also, I don't know what they're going to do now because it's clear that Burning Shores was setting up Sylens to have a major role in the next game - a full redemptive arc for him. I think the character is too important to the series to just dump without Lance Reddick but he's so identified with the character that it's going to be super hard to replace him or chart a way forward. I mean they even made Sylens look like Lance and I think he's been too important throughout the series to just let it go.
