Has Ben's habit of casual flirting caused any problems for him or the team?
Probably not as much as his casual flexing with Omnitrix tbh xD Which is basically flirting for this guy!
Though admittingly HoM Ben is not as flirty as it might seem at first. As he grew up, it became, as you said, a habit - more of a part of his heroic/public persona that he developed after becoming a hero celebrity across the (alien part of) universe.
It tends to make people (especially those who know him by his reputation first) feel easier around him and/or underestimate him if he is just some silly guy who flirts. (I mean he is silly guy who casually flirts, but he is also just a dude and so much more, as we all know.)
There were a few instances when it brought trouble, but also sometimes it helped them out too. But, let's just say that HoMies tend to look out for Ben not to say something unfortunate whenever he tends to be too friendly.
Actually there is another casual flirter in their friend group that brings almost as much trouble as Ben - it's Jake! Some of his casually flirty/overly friendly behaviour can be attributed to him becoming an American Dragon in his early teens (he really enjoyed his newfound cool dragon powers and popularity amongst magical folk), and some of it is just his personality (his behaviour was incredibly cringy at times when he was younger, but as he matured, it changed into something a little bit more charming).
When those two are on a mission together, others have to work overtime to keep an eye on them.
Which is ironic, because I 100% headcanon almost all of the HoMies masters of accidental rizz: they make people like them just by being themselves lol.
You know, if Alex more or less looked like Marco's image when Henry first meet him, I too would panic, fuck up normal human social interaction and run away
Y'all do know you can't make Jason be NOT white without changing his whole character, right?
For other characters, yes, because their physical appearance are not that influential in their story, on how they are viewed by people, on their personality formation — you can have a black/asian/indigenous/arab/brown/latino/etc Nico and yes, the hate he gets will have a undertone of racism but at the same time nothing significant on his story, motivation or personality will need to change. This is also true for other characters: Clarisse risks repeating the "aggressive WoC" stereotype but the character itself doesn't change.
This isn't true for Jason, whose main character trait is how he is perceived by others and how he showcases himself to others based on that perception. (specially with how little effort Riordan put on him besides making him perfect-er Percy who's somehow also weaker and less important than him).
Let's not pretend a black, Arab, indigenous, Asian, Latin man, etc, in the USA would ever be treated with the universal reverence Jason gets from New Roma, you can't have the illusion of perfection and most of all, of invincibility they have about him when you see him suffering racism or xenophobia in the middle of a mission. Nothing in his life has ever gone wrong, that's his image, destined to be king, he is supposed to have no weakness on his peers eyes.
He is not trying to prove people wrong, he is trying to prove them right; he isn't worthy despite their prejudice, on the contrary, he only tried to make himself worthy to fulfill their expectations. He can't be a woman or an immigrant or have a visible disability or any other thing that strays him from a perfect ideal by western society standards, and be that same character.
Lewis Hamilton post qualifying in Japan | 23.09.23
Yesterday was horrendous, but made some changes overnight, the car was feeling really good today so I was much happier with it. It’s just unfortunate we’re not quick enough, we just gotta keep working away
We’re a long way away on rear downforce so that’s why we’re so slow in the first sector. The laps felt really good, it’s just, we’re one second away, it’s like crazy. At this point, to still be a second down on a track like this is definitely worrying for us as a team.
Optimism in the long pace for Sunday?
“No. I think we’re just gonna struggle like everybody else with deg… Yea, it’s gonna be tough tomorrow.”