I am a man of my word, said I would report around halfway mark if it was even close to true

Yep it was bullshit, they even said so in ep 2 when Miorine (silver hair) stated she needed to be engaged to Suletta so she was neither a pawn to her father or the elite business heads. The series itself is good, art style is great, characters got depth (except the discrimination assholes) and it's all elites using their kids as pawns to gain more power, standard Gundam plot.

TLDR: The current Gundam not yuri bait, safe to watch. This season in general has been very solid.