Having embraced my shipper nature a long time ago, all I can say is, regarding pairings that you're not as interested in... if you have the time and inclination, and a nice recs list, it can be worth it. But sometimes even the worst badfic in a pairing I love is worth more to me for two paragraphs that really hit my buttons, than a well-written fic about characters I just don't give a damn about. If I don't care about the characters, I'm never going to care about the fic. That goes for original fiction, and doubly (maybe triply) so for fanfic.