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Fear of the next Rapelay incident, dubious legality of some content (bestiality, child porn...), etc etc

I'd say choices are a legacy of the origins of VNs, i.e. textual adventure games, and their closeness to dating sims. 
I've talked about that before but, basically, I think the VNs that exploit the best the choice system are those with tons of choices that give you the impression of "exploring a given setting" rather than "choosing between several stories". Strongly advise playing Kagetsu Tohya for that, half the fun of the game is its choice system.
 
But overall it often indeed seems like a useless artifact, "we put them there because it's what we always do".
With that being said, wouldn't non-linear (rather than interactive, in this case) fiction be a bit less immersive if the choices were done on a more "meta" level, outside of the story, through a menu that directly lets you choose a route?

I'd say choices are a legacy of the origins of VNs, i.e. textual adventure games, and their closeness to dating sims. 
I've talked about that before but, basically, I think the VNs that exploit the best the choice system are those with tons of choices that give you the impression of "exploring a given setting" rather than "choosing between several stories". Strongly advise playing Kagetsu Tohya for that, half the fun of the game is its choice system.
 
But overall it often indeed seems like a useless artifact, "we put them there because it's what we always do".
With that being said, wouldn't non-linear (rather than interactive, in this case) fiction be a bit less immersive if the choices were done on a more "meta" level, outside of the story, through a menu that directly lets you choose a route?