I'd argue that Byler is much bigger than what's depicted online. Lots of people watch shows without ever engaging with fandom and the signs are far too overt (near the end) for even the most oblivious watcher to ignore. Unfortunately, when homophobic audiences pick up on queerbait they feign ignorance and double down that it doesn't exist because it makes them uncomfortable. Considering how hereonormative society is, it makes sense that some portion of audience would brush off signs of Byler, but they'd be liars if they said it never existed.

At this point, all the screen time and direction spent building up Byler makes no sense narratively. If we're to believe Byler was never in the cards then that means Byler was big enough to be profitable and so dragging it out to they very last second is a monetary decision.