Thanks for this rant (even though I haven't finished reading it yet ! )
What you said is 10000000% true !
I just wanted to tell you something about what you said at the beginning, when you mentioned the fact you weren't an NS fan (I have no problem with this no worries haha ) I just wanted to point out that, we (maybe not all of us, but the majority), as NS fans, loved them for the reasons you mentioned, for their relationship, and not only because they looked cute together, yes of course they do, but it's not the main reason we ship them. Well, I'm sure you already know that, since you're probably on this forum for years, but just wanted to say it.
Anyway, I'm always glad to read a non-shipper's opinion, it makes me feel even more...confident about what I was thinking, that once again, we weren't blinded by all our "shipness"
I personally don't even considere what happened after chapter 699 as canon, even though IT IS. It happened, and we can't deny it. But, we all know that everything in that ending contradicts what happened before, and was so badly written that it cannot be accepted as a true ending.
Where are you exactly? Because I also talked about where chapter 699 and beyond really belong. In which category it well categorizes.