After Story and Refrain could exist without the individual routes though. The only difference is that the endings would be different, and the plot would differ not that much, but slightly.
Now about Angel Beats, it’s not that people aren’t interested. Everyone’s interested in the back stories, but it seems like overkill wasting much time on all of those members. Think about Angel Beats!'s plot itself. Going into all those routes is beneficial to the story, but also seems pointless at the same time. I actually think their routes and back stories would be the most interesting out of any Key VN/anime. But over 18 routes ? That’s not exactly delightful.
