I have to admit that I sometimes get tired of the seeming necessity for romance in YA novels. Some novels are made for romance, of course, and I'm all-in for those romances,* but others give every sign of not having romance take over the plot, and it's those that usually end up disappointing me when they do. I remember being highly disappointed last year, thinking that I was actually reading an ace/aro character in a YA fantasy novel, only to have the plot and her character completely taken over by her feelings for another character in the middle of the book. Likewise, a book I read this year seemed to have no problem without romance until about 75% through, when suddenly the romance showed up and the character threw herself into it and devoted many of the remaining pages to it, and seemingly turning everything more melodramatic than the first 75% called for. In some books, the romance is throughout, but the action of the climax literally stops so that the destined couple can make-out. This makes me roll my eyes, no matter how much I was rooting for them.
I don't know if it's that publishers expect romance, that writers get excited writing it, that YA readers don't seem to like it without romance, or if we just see romance in all YA and integrate it instinctually as a natural part of the category.
To the OP, as we have said many times to you, if you don't like what you're seeing in YA, write something different. Have you started writing yet?
(*in fact, these are the books I tend to write)