I usually do a blind playthrough first, trying to get the route I'm most interested in, but I keep playing even if I end upbin another LI's route. If there is a recommended order with a route that reveals too much and I end up on that one, I restart playing.
I tend to prioritize the game I'm playing at the moment. I don't have much free time to play so there is no way I can keep up with new releases, and that sums up with my HUGE backlog so I rarely play new games as soon as they are released.
I'm very happy to discover KoiLog, I haven't played a lot of otomes (mostly mobile ones for the past few years, started playing more famous ones recently). I was ysing VNDB, but I'm glad there is a otome focused tracker now :D
I usually go blind in my first playthrough, but after I like to collect the good ending first, and then the bad ones. That's mostly because I suppose the good ending is the "true ending" and i treat the bad ones as kind of extra endings
Art is pretty inportant to me, but I might still play if the story is good, even if I dislike the art.
Sometimes western otoges art don't appeal to me, but they have such good and refreshing plots that I end up playing anyway