Oh yeah, I can see how that could get very twisted. It's been a while since I engaged with that kind of discourse, I've forgotten how slippery the slope is into narrower and narrower definitions of the 'right' way to do/be a thing.

My line of thinking for darkships was more towards Hero/Villain ships and Villain/Villain ships where the villain(s) is/are absolutely not redeemed... I was in a particular fandom a while ago where at least one person was routinely having very public meltdowns about their NOTP being popular because character A at one point tried to kill character B- but I guess that ties back into the issue with the word shipping having a wide range of meanings to different people.