I will clarify--I don't think it was maliciously mocking shippers. But the plot itself didn't make any sense to me outside of a context of making an ironic statement. Like, I don't understand why it's there at all? Unless it's for a joke? And to me it wasn't clever enough or character-revealing enough for it to be worth it. It just felt cheap to me. It felt like a lack of substance, as you say.