@lirazel@geraineon I would say that for me it's not quite this! it's like an intersection between canon and fandom. If the ship is canon and gets a fair amount of attention in canon then it's not a rarepair no matter how little fic there is. but if it's a minor background couple that appears in one scene in canon and never again, then it could still be a rarepair if fandom doesn't do much with them. and simultaneously a ship that isn't canon could be NOT a rarepair if it's one the fandom spends a lot of energy on, comparative to the size of the fandom
so EITHER canon OR fandom giving the ship a fair amount of focus would, I think, remove a ship from counting as a rarepair in my eyes
but also, even if a ship isn't canon and there's all of 3 fics for the ship, if those 3 fics are the majority of the extant fics on the internet for that canon, it's still not a rarepair to me. because it's getting the majority of the fandom's attention, such that there is!