Everyone talking about Riddle-Master makes me want to reread it too! I read it once as a teen and quite liked it, but I don't recall much of the plot at at all at this point. Which is fun for a reread, honestly, since it'd be close to reading it for the first time again.
As far as gen goes:
Lately I've been in fandoms that are very team-focused, which leads to both a lot of fodder for gen fic and yet also (because the canons are themselves very gen) gives a lot of intense close relationships that are easy for people to read as shippy, and people like writing those shippy explorations. But there's also a bunch of gen stuff! So it's partially fandom-dependent, but beyond that I do think you're right that there's more overlap in what any individual wants to read. (Or write! Writers are also less likely to be writing Only One Ship now, I think.)
Regardless of why, I do appreciate the growth of & fic (and of hard-to-categorise fic that could be either & or / depending on how the author thinks about it).
no subject
As far as gen goes:
Lately I've been in fandoms that are very team-focused, which leads to both a lot of fodder for gen fic and yet also (because the canons are themselves very gen) gives a lot of intense close relationships that are easy for people to read as shippy, and people like writing those shippy explorations. But there's also a bunch of gen stuff! So it's partially fandom-dependent, but beyond that I do think you're right that there's more overlap in what any individual wants to read. (Or write! Writers are also less likely to be writing Only One Ship now, I think.)
Regardless of why, I do appreciate the growth of & fic (and of hard-to-categorise fic that could be either & or / depending on how the author thinks about it).