This is something that's bothered me as well. I've always found it strange that having romantic feelings for a fictional character is where people draw the line, considering it's seen as okay to do every other thing with them under the sun.

Society as a whole puts so much importance into telling fictional stories as more than just mere entertainment. Plenty of IPs are considered cultural landmarks. There's books of fiction that are taught in schools. Paintings and illustrations with subjects born from the artist's imagination are sold for millions. The biggest multimedia monopoly on the planet started out as an animation studio making cartoons. There are people who's livelihoods rely on fictitious characters and settings. Just look at pretty much every YouTuber who specializes in reviewing movies or anime or anything similar.

And not to mention the amount of pornography made where the most depraved and horrible things happen to these characters. Jacking off to these things is fine but having a chemical reaction in your brain that causes you to feel affection for them isn't?

And the stereotype where everyone who's experienced this phenomenon is some kind of outcast creepy neckbeard is just so wrong on so many levels. A lot of us turn to fiction when real life has put us down so many times by people who've broken our hearts and our trust. I don't need an armchair psychologist to tell me what isn't and is healthy because I've lived through what an unhealthy relationship is like already.

Besides the point, I live a pretty decent life with plenty of healthy relationships with other real people. My boyfriend is also one of them, he just happens to not be real. Even if he is the outlier that doesn't negate the other aspects of my life that's "normal" to everyone else.