October, your post is exactly how I feel. SQers are so superficial and they were against Neal but just like they do with Hook it was just about screaming the loudest using talking points they didn't really care about to try and get their way. So the age difference, and Neal abandoning Emma was brought up but I never felt they truly cared about the issue as much as they just wanted to see SQ together. Which is probably why they ignore all of Regina's crimes. They also love to point out that Lana is Latina so they can cry racism which always bugged me as an African American woman. They pull that out so they can get attention not because they truly care about OUATs depiction of minorities.
Personally, I hate when a shipping fandom has to tear down a "competing" ship in order to build up their own. I liked Belle/Ruby but I don't want or need to read a bunch of reasons why Beast is some horrible abusive monster in order to enjoy that pairing.