Like a dandelion up through the pavement, I persist

Yes, it's interesting how it can be a generational thing! I feel like there wasn't anything approaching the same focus on "this will/should happen in canon" when I was a baby fan. Although that was also due to mainly being an m/m shipper and not feeling that it was realistic that canon would make their characters queer, so maybe the fact that it's more plausible now has led to more people thinking that shipping something meant that it was going to or should happen in canon.