There seem to be two arguments about the quality of stories with a married Spider-Man.
One is that this was a status quo that worked for decades.
Another is that this was a status quo that came with a lot of dreck.
One way to determine the strength of the marriage as a status quo for stories would be to consider stories with a married Spider-Man that we can agree are good.
So for example, most Spider-Man fans can agree Kraven's Last Hunt is good. That's 6 issues.
We can generally agree the Renew Your Vows mini-series was at least okay. That brings it to at least 11 issues.
I think Amazing Spider-Man #365's Lizard story is solid, and I haven't heard much disagreement. That's 12 issues.
DeFalco/ Bennett/ Skroce's Electro saga (Amazing Spider-Man #422-423, 425) seems to have a decent reputation. That's 15 issues.
Millar/ Dodson's Marvel Knights Spider-Man run makes Best of lists. That's 27 issues.
Obviously there's much more to go.
How far can we go with issues that most Spider-Man fans can agree are worthwhile (if you reviewed it, it would be at least a B or *** comic.)
My take is this should be limited to stories with Peter Parker would be considered married to MJ, and the lead of the series in the main adventure. So it wouldn't include flashbacks, alternate universe comics with a single Peter, untold tales, stories with Ben Reilly as the lead, stories when MJ was believed dead or stories when Peter & MJ were separated (with the exception of their reconciliation in Amazing Spider-Man Volume 2 #46-50; that brings it to at least 32 issues.) Those fall in a different category of comics published while Peter & MJ were married, but they're not about a married Peter Parker.
These stories would not require Peter & MJ to be married, so it sidesteps the argument about whether it could've largely been told with a single Peter Parker, but these would all feature a Peter Parker who is married.
I'm wondering roughly how many issues we could settle on?
And we may also get leads on good comics.