I agree totally with your perspective on it, that’s how I see it too, I’m just saying that the writers probably wrote their interactions with a possible romance in mind, and the actors also took that into account into their performances. Like that deleted scene, they didn’t know it was going to be deleted, so that scene still informed the rest of their interactions in that film.

I don’t blame anyone who sees it, because that was always in the back of their minds during the production of these films and that can’t be denied, I just personally choose to view it as a close, platonic relationship like you do, too.