AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

(they get enough of that in real life already)

I think where the grievance some people might have here comes in is where they see this exact demonstration of beautiful love that you described in Spike, but Rarity's half of the relationship feels to be lacking. And what you described is designed to be one-sided, all that one person can do; but what people want — what shippers want — is to see this wonderful type of love being expressed from both sides of the relationship, not just one person pining and the other not giving a damnEven more subdued and casual, Spike is still pumping out every little bit of affection he can muster for Rarity. Everything he does for himself or others, it's ultimately all for Rarity: checking his muscles and strength in the mirror, keeping himself as being a humble and nice dragon, helping Rarity out with whatever she needs done, one can easily argue that it's all ultimately for her.And that's wonderful… except for the fact that Rarity doesn't seem to be reciprocating anything. We don't see her going out of her way to do things for Spike's sake, even in the least degree. I guess we do see her start to take greater and greater responsibility for "getting down and dirty" in doing what needs to be done, like making her business put out branches or not flinching at getting covered in dirt, but it can't easily be said that the ultimate reason she does those things are for Spike at all, it's just her pursuing her own desires and ideas. Gauntlet of Fire here did have a good opener where she and Spike were mining up jems together (a stark difference than the Diamond Dogs episode where Spike was digging and Rarity was just telling him where to dig) so there may be hope yet for this ship and those that ship it (myself included). But then it could also just turn into a nice, simple friendship, Spike's lust dying as it tries to reach for something deeper but can't because Rarity's affections never go past simple friendliness. It's hard to say at this point, which is kind of worrisome since we've already gone through 5 seasons and yet somehow haven't gotten anywhere with this in that time.But so whichever way it goes, it's understandable that people have been feeling fairly frustrated that, arguably the show's primary ship, the one they established was going to be a thing from the very first episode, isn't modeling the kind of love that people want to see — especially in a show about friendship, love, harmony, and doing all of those good things right for once.