Ah, that's a useful example: I had EXTREME DIFFICULTY seeing Ron/Hermoine to start with, and was a mild Harry/Hermione shipper, but once it became canon went "Well I guess that's it then" and since I want to think of the two of them being happy spent ages trying to imagine how it could work. Since I had several years before that to get attached to other pairings, I can definitely read them, but anything post canon needs at least a token "..after Ron and Hermione broke up..." somewhere or I can't believe it.

I enjoy friendship gen, and vastly prefer it to emotionless porn, but for me there is a definite distinction between close friendship and romance between characters, and if I want one then the other won't do. I can see how, for you, there'd be less need to ship almost-canon couples.