If men involved with boys who had serious reservations about any romantic/sexual aspects of the relationship, then it would not have truly been a genuine romantic relationship in the first place.

That's a very high standard for a romantic relationship, if you're defining "serious" as strong enough that it might get mentioned in a conversation.

It would have been an "arrangement" of some sort, with each partner sacrificing something to acquire what they wanted from the other. Sandfort was clearly asking for serious romantic relationships, with all the ups and downs of relationships between people of comparable age.

Well, in that case you're assuming the conclusion. You might as well put out a call for lottery winners, and based on your study conclude that most people win the lottery. But even in those cases, I read most of the boys as expressing faint praise for the sexual aspects -- despite finding one or two where there is more enthusiasm.

The policy question is whether it's OK for men to engage in sexual activity with boys. The costs and benefits have to be calculated over all such instances, not ones that worked out pretty much OK.

There are plenty of adult men that boys could find to be a platonic mentor or friend if one of these things were all they wanted;

Oh? Boys who need platonic mentors and friends have to turn away the applicants? Last I knew, programs like Big Brother/Big Sister were quite short on good big brothers. And if the interest was motivated strongly by the sex, you would not expect such boys to come from disproportionately troubled home situations.

Contrary to that popular narrative you adhere to, it's extraordinary difficult for adults to get minors to do anything the latter truly does not want to do if they lack direct power and authority over them, and even then it's an uphill battle in many cases.

You could define "truly does not want to do" to require a self-awareness and confidence that is unrealistic for most children. Otherwise, this is just wrong. Most of the abuse survivor tales tell of feeling powerless. And while a few rebellious and independent youth stand out in our minds, most are pretty cowed by grown-ups.

(Reminder: Mike Bailey and I are still waiting for the citation of his work suggesting frequent prepubescent interest in sexual activity with adults.)