no_takebacks | DPP: Shifting The Sides of the Quadrangle of Doom

One of the most common complaints when it came to canon and pilots is that pilots' alternate love interests (aka Dee and Sam) just didn't seem to work as credible obstacles to keep pilots apart, and that they weren't even all that interesting to watch as relationships, which ultimately resulted in the turn for the stupid that was TAB.

Today's question is, what if you could pick new secondary love interests for pilots? Is there anyone in the massive extended cast of BSG who could have actually brought more and better to the Quadrangle of Doom than Sam and Dee? Would the story have been more believable if the "dead guy" Kara was hung up on in Scar was Helo (leave aside the fact that he's back on Galactica by then) or the woman Lee discovered an unexpected attraction to was Athena/Boomer (forcing him to reconsider his hatred of Cylons), or Laura?

Pilots contemplate picking out other people to romance/frak since they can't have each other...not fun but they'll do it.

Is there any way at all to make the Quadrangle of Doom palatable/worth our time, shipper nation?