How relevant is the tie between bathing scenes, characterization and social bonding?

[MisaoFan]

How important is the connection between the bathing scenes (bath, shower, steam bath and even foot bath), social bonding and the general characterization of the cast in animanga? As someone with not so good social skills that only started to improve moderately in recent years and is struggling to fit in with others (outside of familyhood) throughout my life with the constant fear of feeling being left alone, I think seeing bathing scenes in animanga not only changed my life incredibly during childhood and emphasized a certain side I never saw before then but help me influence yet also ponder how I see social bonding (both IRL and fiction) and the concept of socialization even though I only shower sometimes and rarely bath in my daily life.

For me, bathing scenes bring me a sense of comfortability that's unrivaled by anything else. Of course there are bathing scenes that emphasize on sexuality and sexually suggestive misunderstandings a bit too much which I don't like them a lot (they sadly occur often especially in "harems") since in my personal view bathrooms aren't meant to be used as places for activities of sexual nature, but to me bathing scenes are important in the sense that not only can they be quite relevant in characterization extensively as in emphasizing more of the cast's character traits that's never seen during scenes when they're clothed, but it also help socially awkward/inexperienced characters shine at characterization level that strengthens social bonding with others during group baths (which I can relate) and personal conversations between characters that rarely interact otherwise. Being naked (even if they're toweled in certain cases) symbolize the equality between all bathers (and I support the idea of equality myself) even in their purest form to emphasize their true selves and being submerged in the water up to torso (the proper act of bathing in the tub) means the strong desire of blending in with others pretty closely. Since they're usually lighthearted by nature, I appreciate them even more.

With those aspects I specifically highlighted above, I like them when series include bathing scenes (if they are present to begin with) pretty often (even if it's proportional to the episode count) thus the higher the amount of bathing scenes, the happier I would feel (even on a case by case basis), however I would like them less if they're sexualized too much (I prefer the tamer ones that just emphasis bare shoulders and collarbones with a bit of cleavage if they're submerged in the bathtub).

So how do you perceive this general concept (and my personal critique as well)?