Towleroad has a story about comments from CBS Exec Babs Bloom. She's trying her hardest to say they haven't caved to the right AND that this whole storyline is some kind of planned
piece of art...but here is the key line:

"The only thing you're going to get out of me is that the pacing is slower with Luke and Noah than it is with other romances on ATWT. But that's good storytelling. We're in the business of getting people to watch more."

That pretty much sums it up...we're using you and this storyline to get attention and ratings.

Good storytelling? Three couples on that show just started relationships on that show in the past two months...they've been shown in bed together and I'm reading that two of the couples are going to get married. But Luke and Noah...that's slow and good storytelling? Bullshit. Any gay person that still watches this show is suffereing from battered spouse syndrome...it's just that one time, he didn't mean it...I'll go back and things will be different...

You can go to Towleroad to read more of the quote from Barbara Bullshit.