It was really awkward in Fire Emblem Three Houses when one of the s-rank social link endings was two males being such good friends that they were buried next to each other after spending all their life together
The male same sex relationships in Three Houses were extremely disappointing, and some of them actually offensive.
The game launched with three male x male S ranks (ie "romance") for the main character, but two of those S ranks turned out to be platonic straight friendships, with one of them actually suggesting the man you S ranked with would rather you marry his daughter. This is compared to the 5 female x female S ranks that are all romantic in nature, one of which is with Edelgard, one of the central characters. Claude and Dimitri were not given the same options.
Also, there are pairing between female characters (that don't include the MC) that are romantic in nature, while there are no male x male romantic pairings that don't involve the MC. (Just deep "friendship", as you mentioned.)
Two more male S ranks were added via DLC, but only one of them was free, the other was part of the paid expansion chapter. And after all that, male S ranks are still at a disadvantage.
