Lots people love Swanfire and even non shippers like the idea of Emma and Neal. Lots of fans enjoy Neal they are just scared to speak up or just tired from some of the hate.
My mom is a very casual viewer who just started watching right before S3 began. She doesn’t understand fandom or shipping (I had to explain what “to ship” actually meant). So when our rewatch of S2 ended and she was all caught up I asked her, “who would you prefer Emma with? Neal or Hook?” And her response was, “I don’t understand. Why would she ever be with Hook?”
The total sum of viewers greatly outweighs any one number of shippers or even internet culture in general. So while I agree that A and E are probably keeping their internet fandom in mind, I think the stick to their story and the story they’ve wanted to tell for years was how a girl who didn’t know she was magical and the savior of a curse fell in love with the boy the curse was intended to find.