Maybe try reading friendship fic instead of slash fic? Or starting a community for a friendship as opposed to a relationship. I think you'll find that many people do like the friendship, they just don't necessarily have a place to appreciate it vocally.

A lot of fandom trends have to do with finding like-minded people who will encourage each other and write fic or host communities or have discussions about characters in any way, shape or form they're interested in. This sadly also leads to things like shipper wars or gen fic vs ship fic, but it does allow for different appreciations of characters or pairings to flourish.