For me the relationships were a bonus in this game, because the main themes, for me, were always where the limits between being human and being a machine are, and how technology can corrupt people and make them behave and think more like machines - losing important values like hope, family, friendship to become pawns used by corporations that profits from this behavior and manipulates society by making them slaves by their own instincts.
That's why every product, show and music have a high level of empty beauty and sexualization, that's all a trick to make people work harder to fullfil these empty desires. People were slaves to their own instincts, like animals, or for religions, or gangs, or their own hate, psichiatrical problems and so on.
For me that's the richness of cyberpunk world. This corruption, mess, and planned chaos that burn and kill people from inside.
So, having friends and possibly some romance was a ray of light inside the dark world of cyberpunk 2077.
And for me, that was the highlight of the game.