Sorry, I'm not with you on that. It's pretty much the only thing they can do to that pairing that will guarantee that I'll never watch it again. Not that my one viewer count will matter, but, frankly, I'm just not into slash.
Why do people always want to take close same-sex friendships and immediately throw sex into them? I just don't get it. What's wrong with just being friends? (or is this a different thread?)
As an LGBT viewer, I'd like to see characters and storylines that reflect my life - I don't think that's unreasonable. But I never do. Ever. A show can have a cast of dozens, even hundreds, and all will be straight. I could watch a dozen shows and none would feature an LGBT character of any importance. I honestly can't think of a single LGBT character or pairing on any show that I currently watch. I'm forced to try and interpret same-sex friendships as having LGBT subtext, because there just is no actual text anywhere. It's pretty sad, to be honest. Are we LGBT people really so other that we have to be hidden away where straight folks can't see us?
edit: Let me put this another way. Imagine that TV audiences are majority LGBT. 99% of all TV shows you watch are exclusively LGBT. All the characters are LGBT. All the relationships are LGBT. The shows will go to absurd lengths to ensure that the majority LGBT audience never has to see any heterosexual content. (This is partly a function of the fact that straight TV writers have to only write about LGBT characters, otherwise they're accused of having a "straight agenda".)
As a straight viewer, you might naturally see hints of opposite-sex attraction between characters, but if you ever mention it or God forbid the show ever acknowledges it, LGBT viewers will complain that you're ruining the show. Because straight romance is icky, and nice normal LGBT viewers don't want that stuff shoved under their noses on TV. LGBT viewers will actively stop watching a show and start complaining about it if it doesn't stay pure.
I suggest that you might find that situation somewhat frustrating and upsetting.
(Of course, this parallel isn't really complete unless you're socially and legally persecuted for being straight, and you live in absolute terror of your family finding out that you're straight, and you can't hold hands with your opposite-sex partner on the street, and you don't dare even post about it on Facebook in case your employer googles you, and generally you feel like society is stamping on your head at every opportunity.)