Our policy around these parts is “ship and let ship, even if that ship is no ship.” I harp on this a lot: if you don’t ship that’s great! if you ship, that’s great too! Respect that everyone has a different perspective and different way of looking at this show. Some people are totally passionate about their ships (look at the dedicated SF and CS threads!) And some people could honestly care less.
Shipping is a big part of INTERNET FAN CULTURE. And not just ONCE’s but Doctor Who, Sherlock, Supernatural, Game of Thrones, ect, (all the really big fandoms out there). It’s just part of how social media, people, fandoms and the like interact. People develop different viewpoints on characters and their chemistry with other characters and they start to like the idea of them. Fan fics get written, headcanons get formed, evidenced is complied and pretty soon you’ve got yourself a ship.
The problem with shipping comes when the story becomes all about that. When the writers or creators try to appease fandom instead of their storyline. It’s a natural tendency as they want their fans to be happy, but if you were to find an average viewer, someone who just watches the show passively (as in they don’t bother to go on Twitter or Tumblr or fan sites, they aren’t interested in spoilers or theories, they simple WATCH) then chances are they are more like KP: they don’t know what shipping is and probably don’t care. It’s when you step into fandom that the lid gets blown off the top. It’s an important part of fandom, but certainly not *the* most important part.
So feel free to not ship. Most of us are fans of the show FIRST and a ship SECOND. Rumbelle may be my OTP and I could gush for hours about why I love them but at the end of the day, I’m more concerned with myth building and storytelling.