While I don't actually ship them (I basically don't ship anything in the series because ... the series doesn't do that justice very well), I have to disagree with a few points here.
First of all, EVERY shipper does basically only see what they want to see. Personally, I think the SoKai ship is one of the worst romances I've ever seen in any media because it's just so forced and bland. People ship Riku and Sora together because they have a lot in common, they have a deep connection (damn, Riku was in Sora's heart) and DDD is all over it with them constantly telling everyone how much they care about each other and how they miss each other and so on. Yes, you're right, you don't need to take that as a hint of them being gay, but I can see why people do and personally, I think they'd compliment each other well. SoKai is basically Kairi sending Sora cheesy letters in her head, Sora never thinking about her and only talking about Riku when they're supposedly having a moment (looking awkward as hell) and suddenly, they're supposed to be in love. Sort of. It has a reason that extra stuff was in the DLC, it was an afterthought. If anything, I felt KH3 disproved SoKai as a functional couple more than it proved it. Nomura doesn't care one bit about Kairi, so why would I? For Riku, Repliku wanted to protect Naminé and Riku respected that wish, I don't really see the sexual tension there. Anyway, this is not a shipping war.
I feel like you got toxic masculinity wrong ... toxic masculinity is a (usually manly) behaviour when people consider others less manly because of certain things, like displaying emotions. To put shippers in the same pot is just insulting ... I mean the problem here is not that people ship them - shippers ship anything that's been together on the screen for two seconds - it's that real people treat other real people worse because some part of some fandom who thinks two men loving each other (on whatever basis) is gay. At least that what you're implying, I guess. Basically your idea is people should stop shipping fictional characters as gay because it might imply that two good friends in reality are gay? Sounds pretty wild to me.
Guess what, I wish people would stop basically making love comments about every friendship between men and women. They CAN be friends. People are like that especially with hetero pairings and so often when someone brings up the possibility of a character being gay they yell "oh, you with your homosexuality! Why do you have to make everyone gay?" - I don't, I simply imply it's a possibility. Why do you have to make everyone hetero? With fictional characters we can ship whoever we want on whatever signs we want, shipping is simple fun. "Because 90% of the world's population is hetero!" - we can't know that for sure, like, we really can't (who even makes these large-scale guesses?) and even if they are, you might win statistically, but that doesn't disprove the idea the two characters we're talking about might be in the remaining 10%. That our society is heteronormative is not exactly healthy and shouldn't be a point of an argument.
So, if people treat two good friends worse because they imply they might be gay and on top of that, imply that makes them any less manly, this is nowhere the fault of shippers, it's solely the fault of those awful people. THAT'S a sign of toxic masculinity, not shipping. Toxic masculinity is basically punishing shippers for their (playful) opinion while harassing real life people and putting the blame for that on someone else.
Riku being gay or not has nothing to do with him being manly or not, something he also doesn't have to be if he doesn't feel like it. Also, me thinking Sora and Riku might be a good couple doesn't make any two guys in the real world gay, that's just excessive and if anything, people should take Sora and Riku as poster childs of a lovely connection (of any sort). If people would stop seeing emotions between men as "unmanly" and thus as baaad, we wouldn't even have a discussion about this.
While I appreciate the good intention behind your arguments & acknowledge that you make some good points, you'll be getting an equal broadside right back to you. Still, I'll try to respectfully disagree.
There's a fine line between between regular shipping(like I said, simply thinking the characters could be good together), and actually being disrespectful for the content, trying to twist the reality in to your own personal image. I do't think every Soriku-shipper is like the latter(which is something I could've made more clear in my original comment, I admit), but the portion that is makes way too big of a deal out of it. By going trough few searches in Google and YouTube, you can easily find dozens of posts & videos about people stating they have "proof" that Sora and Riku actually are gay. And at their worst, the proof is something as insipid as Riku being uncomfortable with Shiki flirting with him(DDD, Traverse Town), or Sora just mentioning Riku's name during his travels.
And the way you describe the relationship between Sora and Kairi is just bland & honestly, also insulting. It's true that Kairi's role early on was pretty much just being the driving force for Sora, and her transition hasn't been handled that well in the later installments. Still, the bond they share has run real & deep in the first games(KH1, CoM, KH2). Starting early on in Destiny Islands, where they have a dialog and a flashback showing how their feelings have been built on friendship that has lasted about 10 years. All of that is confirmed with the music and the atmosphere in the scenes they share together.
And I will argue that Kairi has equally as much in common with Sora as Riku does. While the guys have some similar heroic traits, Sora & Kairi are close mainly because they're both so pure inside. That's why everything is so easy for them when they're together. Don't forget that Kairi is still a Princess of Heart, so her purity and sensitivity must always remain on the table. How well it's performed is a whole other subject. That's why; granted, I also see Riku's & Sora's connection having better writing, especially in the released games of the last decade. But what has been the creator's intension stands above all. And I honestly hope Kairi's character arc will get better. The way they tried to redeem her in ReMind, proves that Nomura does care about her. He just hasn't paid enough focus on that earlier, and that's why it wasn't handled so well...
BTW, Kairi was also inside Sora's heart.
Oh, I guarantee you, I haven't got toxic masculinity wrong. It's indeed an antic way of thinking that being sensitive or gay would make one less of a man. But the fact is that large part of society will still see it that way, especially among young guys.
Now, I'll try to clarify my point here: the core of toxic masculinity comes from men believing that those kind of humane traits are actually feminine. Think about it: how many times it has happened in a movie or a tv-series, when a male character shows some level of vulnerability, and gets responded "Are you queer, or something?"
These kind of stories and characters could correct that misshapen assumption, point out how being a caring person is not tied to your sexuality. You
can be sensitive and want to open up from your feelings every now and then, and it doesn't define what you are in other parts of life. I honestly believe that was meant to be one of the core points of Sora as a character. Like I said, I especially like him, because he's not afraid of showing emotions and telling how much he cares for people. And there's no bigger conclusion or hidden "flair" behind it, that's just the way he is, and he's 100% comfortable with that. Not to mention how he helps to bring out the same features in Riku, who starts off as more reserved character. I don't like people drawing wrong conclusions about that. But I really hate it when some people claim that false conclusion being actually canon. Cause it's not true, and it blurs otherwise a good message.
Yeah, Soriku, or any other ship, didn't come up with this misconception. But I don't think they deserve to get off the hook from playing a part in confirming it.