Fry dot jpeg.
This show is about humanity. It's about going through some major shit with big ups and much lower downs and continuing on. Of course they're using romance to show that because that's the easiest tool for demonstrative purposes. You don't have to do as much backstory with romance as you do with two people who've been best friends for 30 years or whatever. They're already doing the family thing as well with Tommy, Joel's daughter, etc. This show is about relationships, not zombies. The zombies are background for the hardships the relationships endure. Yeah, I'd rather it be more about zombie blasting and spooks, but that's not how you win Emmys.
Also if if Ellie solo'd a shootout in a mall with a bunch of marauders you all would drop the mary sue card non fucking stop, so that's just a FoH shitpost fest avoided with some classic underage gay interracial love stroyline to let you guys shitpost about instead.