but I just cannot see the appeal of Lorne/Parrish, Stackhouse/Markham, and Lorne/Zelenka.

haha, I read a McShep Rodney whump fic once that was told from the POV of Stackhouse or Markham or maybe Parrish; anyway I felt like I was supposed to know all these other characters but I had no idea who any of them were and was kind of confused. And that, mind, was after I'd already watched the first three seasons. Then later I read about that phenomenon.