Oh, the state of the medium and how things were approached back in the day are totally why this is the thing it is. But that can be applied to every aspect of comics too. The medium has been influenced and controlled by corporate interests since very early on, and the creative and business sides often butt heads, with results no one intended. Wherever you put the blame though, the end result is that Clark's been characterized in a certain way over the years.
And no, I wouldn't say Clark having a family is "impossible" and he's had Kara for decades and decades, Conner for what, twenty-something years, and now Jon for a couple. To say nothing of all the imaginary tales where he has kids. I just think it goes against the basic themes the brand plays around. The concept is elastic by nature; you can define "family" in many ways, after all. And if Clark and Lois are going to be married (which I support) then having a kid is the logical next step and not such a big jump. But still, it's not something I think makes the most sense for the character. Makes a lot of sense for the brand and the marketing, but for the character I just think family is one of those things Clark can't have. >shrug<
He's the Last Son of Krypton. Except he's not. Kara technically avoids breaking that title by being older than Clark (and a girl) and Jon technically doesn't break it by being born on earth and only being half Kryptonian.....but having kids, knowing the family line will continue, renders the premise of "Last Son" moot.
And Bendis is doing it right, as far as Im concerned. If Clark is going to have a family, I'd prefer it to be a weird, non-traditional, extranormal dynamic rather than something mundane and ordinary. Tomasi wrote the Kents a lot like my own family, actually (we're very close to the nuclear standard, oddly). And it was fun, dont get me wrong, but not really what Superman is about, in my eyes. And as Ive said, I enjoyed Tomasi and I like Jon (a lot more than I should, given my opinion here). But Clark actually getting the family and kids he so desperately wants? Just rings false to me.
Yeah I'd say the lack of marketing was a much bigger issue than fans feeling injured because Bendis took Jon in a new direction.
And I dont buy the idea that the maxi was an "apology." Has anyone here ever known DC to be overly apologetic to fans? Who the hell in their right mind would say "Man, some people on the internet are sad because they don't like a direction that hasn't even solidified yet. Let's spend thousands of dollars on a book no one will buy so we can tell them we're sorry they disagree with our creative choice!" That doesn't sound like DC to me.
Simple answer is that Clark isnt Bruce. Bruce is all about family and has been since very, very, very early on in his inception. A whole lot of his development has revolved around the idea of him trying to build a new family within the framework of his crusade and he's recruited and adopted a lot of people (especially kids) into it. Clark, since the early days of his publication history, has been much more of a "friendly loner" who didn't know what to do with blood relations (or clones, Daxamites, etc) and struggled to connect with them. Just look at that comic from a few pages back where Kara, Conner, Cir-El and Chris Kent accuse Clark of letting them die to protect his legacy. That's the history of the character. Almost eighty years of history have told me that Clark having kids isn't something natural or correct for him, and as much as I love Jon that opinion isn't going to be changed because DC management, who dont understand Superman in the first place, have told me it's suddenly different now.
I am however, intrigued by the idea of Clark learning how to be good with family. As Superlad says, it's not "impossible" for Clark to have a positive family dynamic, it's just not his natural setting. But people can change. Watching him overcome that and learn to be a good and involved dad who didnt push his kid away would've been fascinating. But we didn't get that, we got Jon fully formed at ten years old. Had we gotten to see Clark's learning curve I likely would be calling this a natural progression for Clark instead of saying it doesn't fit his character. Im not a *total* slave to the pre-Crisis mindset, after all.