Bethesda is... not a good developer. Or a very smart one.

They hired the actress who played Amata in Fallout 3, but they wanted her to be romanceable. The actress said no, full stop, she is a child-friendly actress (I think she was on Nickelodeon or Disney) and she would not do the lines. Did they recast her? Nope, they just rolled with it. That's why the game sets you up for a romance but never delivers on it. You were never supposed to be able to romance her during the escape. It was during the Trouble on the Homefront quest where you come back, there was reportedly supposed to be an outcome where you convince her to leave with you (I think you had to have one of the two player homes established in the game — the Megaton house, or the Tenpenny Tower suite) and she would, but they... never finished it, and it's just kinda crappy.

Okay, you live and learn, right? Then the same thing happened with the Dawnguard expansion. They got their Serana, and she said no to the romance stuff (and IIRC vocally opposed mods on PC that let you marry the character). Like, the fuck you care? It's a role, and it's a paying role. But whatever, I can't tell people where to draw the line. I just wish Bethesda had just been up-front with these women, this role does require you to say certain lines because this character will be hooking up with the player (optionally). If they aren't comfortable with that, they don't have to take the job.

I will say, to their credit, that their characters do not care if you are the same or opposite sex (or anything else), you just have to fulfill their obligations. In Skyrim it was typically a friendship quest. If they're a merchant you just have to buy something (or invoke the trade menu) and they consider you a friend. Some had quests you had to do, like the Amazonian woman who had lost her sword. So you had to do a whole dungeon crawl to complete that quest. Then you just wear an Amulet of Mara, speak to them, ask if they fancy you, set up the wedding, and they always say yes. In Fallout 4 and Starfield, you had to complete a quest line for them. So one guy in Fallout 4 has these mercs after him, you take care of them, then you find out he has a son with a crazy infection and he wants you to find the serum that will cure the kid. You never meet the kid. He never leaves and goes back to the kid. In Starfield there was a woman, you just travel with her for a while, eventually she tells you about this mission she was on where she left people behind. She wants to remember them. Turns out there were survivors. They died but had a kid who is living feral, and you can go get the kid and bring her to civilisation (which magically solves everything, but never mind that, it's sweet). So only after all that can you romance these people — or friend-zone them. I do like that a bit better than in Skyrim. And one of the actors — Elias Toufexis, most well known for voicing Adam "I never asked for this" Jensen in Deus Ex: Human Revolution — even came out and said he did his voices intending Starborn of both/all genders to romance his character. And that's probably the best romance in a Bethesda game by far, at least IMO. You meet the mother of his child and gain her approval. You then kinda propose to the child — you tell her you intend to be her step-parent, and then you can either say you love her, or if that makes you uncomfortable, I think you can say you care about her and want to help her reach for the stars or some shit — and she tells you to go propose to her dad. The whole thing was really beautiful. So yeah, Sam and Cora every time, though I haven't played that game (honestly, it's shit otherwise) in a few years.