Oh, I think that goes hand in hand.
Cannot TELL you how many times I've had SoKai, SoRiku, and SoRiKai people get on my case because I happen to find RiKai to be a comfort ship. ._. A lot of "it's not canon!" And "well, ACTUALLY, Riku doesn't really care about Kairi. He was just using her to get Sora's attention!" and "but why can't you include Sora in the ship, too?"
I do like SoRiKai. But I want to write RiKai. RiKai does not have much fic, let alone multichapter fic. xP
It also gets annoying when people attack RepliNami shippers because "but brainwashing" as if they couldn't form a healthy and adorable dynamic beyond that point. In canon? Obviously not since my boy got axed, but in fanworks... Lotta potential.
I think what people need to understand is... you literally do not need to shit on other ships to justify enjoying your OTP. It's just fictional characters kissing. xP People are allowed to have different tastes. This is a general thing, btw. Not trying to single people out. Just a general frustration w/ fandom shipping.
I
do think Repliku and Naminè are problematic and I've expressed that here quite a bit. I feel they didn't have that build and background to have this entire aspect of them that happened in KHIII make sense either. Nonetheless, with Repliku gone, there's not much point in dissecting it further, so I digress. I've seen others like RepliNami and overall that's what they like. That's that.
Riku/Kairi I feel would have been a great ship and I prefer it over Sora and Kairi if I were to pick. I mean, I obviously knew where it was going since KHI, but I think RiKai had potential...that was squandered, almost to the point of insult. Still like their dynamic better. It is what it is though.
I find it frustrating when people purposely misinterpret things to argue a ship is canon, or just flat out assume their headcanon is truth. For example I've got no real issue with Rikunami as a concept even if I don't ship it, it's just the people I see everywhere stubbornly saying it's canon when it's not (not talking about anyone here btw).
A lot of kh spaces online will get on your case if you don't ship the "accepted" sokai, rikunami and rokushi which just gets tiring. Like you can't post a rokunami pic on social media without half a dozen unwarranted "nO iT's XION aNd RoXaS

" Like, no one asked. I feel really bad for the artists in those cases, it costs literally nothing to keep scrolling when you see something you don't like.
Oh, those RokuShi shippers, the obnoxious, near delusional vocal ones who ship RikuNami in tandem, so you'll see they are the same folks. If they're going to purposefully ignore what's being said or done in front of their face, that's no one's problem but theirs.
Also, to get that triggered over
anything RokuNami just screams uncertainty and insecurity instead, as if screaming it all over the place that those ships are "canon" and having other fans fall into that pit would make it real. They expose themselves by
just that to me. Deep inside, they be scared, so they rather not acknowledge anything that goes against their reality.
The only ship near canon, and/or is canon in a specific romantic way, is Sora/Kairi.