Interesting.
I agree that the "will-they-or-won't they" dynamic sucks and has no place in any comic and certainly not Spider-Man.
I did say once that if with OMD, the writers/editors wanted to say, "Peter's making a decision...no relationships ever because his life endangers and hurts people around him" then I could accept it but instead they trotted out a bunch of knockoff love interests (either a variation of Gwen, MJ, Debra Whitman) as placeholders. And the problem with a new love interest is the same with Superman. Nobody is gonna measure up to Lois (not even Wonder Woman in the happily dead New 52 version), no one would measure to Mary Jane.If Quesada & Co. consider that being "practically married", though...then from a writer's perspective, it may really be best to write MJ out and give Peter a new love interest until a pro-marriage Editor-In-Chief comes along. I was actually invested in seeing Peter go out with that comedian girl from Zdarksy's run only to find out she had a boyfriend, both because it was relatable and because as reader I was back to knowing only what Peter knew. I still wasn't as invested in that as I was with the marriage...still, I was more invested in it than the current "Poor Parker luck, that's what kept MJ away" you mentioned.
As "Mighty God King" put it about BND: "Moreover, it wouldn’t matter if the Spider-writers had devoted more time to Peter’s lovelife. It wouldn’t have worked. Know why? Because we already know “what’s supposed to happen.” Peter ends up with MJ, just like Clark ends up with Lois and Batman… well, Batman probably ends up alone and/or dead, but let’s not dwell on that for now." And obviously the writers themselves were never all that invested in a new romance. You can tell that they themselves never bought into Carlie Cooper as a relationship.