I don't Lois and MJ are comparable though. MJ wasn't there
right from the beginning (even if she was also created by Spider-Man's creator) and she wasn't exactly intended to be the 'romantic endgame' for Peter. There was a pretty good chance he'd have ended up with Gwen, and frankly the only reason he didn't was because Gwen was killed off. But yeah, over time, MJ
has become
the Spider-Man love interest. But the people against the Peter-MJ relationship (which at various points has included TPTB at Marvel
) aren't
completely wrong, theoreticaly at least, to explore the serious possibility of Peter having other romantic interests who could end up replacing MJ as 'the One'.
As far as feasible alternatives to Lois go, I think Lana actually does work. Not Pre-Crisis Lana who, as you've suggested, was pretty much a Lois Lane clone. But Post-Crisis Lana, who was in on the secret...was in fact the first person Clark revealed his powers too. I think a compelling narrative
could be built around Clark leaving behind the woman he's loved all his life to explore the wider world and become Superman, only to one day return and marry his high-school sweetheart. Not advocating for it in 'mainline' continuity for sure, but it's worth a thought.
Come to think of it, maybe the New 52 Superman should have been paired with Lana instead of Wonder Woman. Hell, now I'm kinda sold on the idea...if the New 52 Superman ever returns in any way or form, I want him to be with Lana!