I agree and I think that the fact that insane shipping wars exist in the Pokemon fandom (which was never about the shipping) confirms it. These shippers just have to prove that they're right and since their ships make sense in canon (as in, they don't contradict canon), they don't have the restraint of "look, I know this isn't canon, but..." Case in point: Cori Falls. She tried to argue that Jessie and James shouldn't be paired with anyone but each other, and as a corollary, said that James couldn't possibly be gay. Now, there's no reason to think James is gay in canon, but by the same token there's also not really any reason to think he isn't (since I don't think Jessie and James ever do anything expressly romantic at any point in the anime?). And that's in the anime, whose canon and shipping preferences are much less... fluid than in the games, where just about anything goes.