I hope they tell the Carol Marcus story. She and Kirk fall in love and do something that starship captains probably aren't supposed to do with the officers under their command. She gets pregnant and decides a deep space mission is no place to raise a child, so she transfers off the Enterprise back to Earth, leaving Kirk to choose between his ship and his family.
trying to understand why this sounds SO FAMILIAR to me
I don't get the impression that the 'Abrams' counterparts of Kirk and Carol would ever end up together - they don't seem to like each other at all. In this timeline, Carol seems to have more chemistry with McCoy than with Kirk!
you missed the look Carol gave to Kirk in the end?
I tend to agree that them getting together isn't more set in stone than her being single or ending up with Bones or another character.
Kirk/Carol seems to be too much a given and predictable because of tos and I DO think that the writers wanted us to take for granted they'd end up together but I don't know if they wrote themselves into a hole or were just baiting us ala Kirk/Uhura in the first movie.
either way, I'm indifferent about it. I think I got my interest for romantic subplots already filled by one alien/human romance. Trek movies don't really have a structure that gives to writers this huge chance to truly develop the characters and relationships the way you would in a tv-series or another genre of movies. Spock/Uhura works mainly because, I think, the fact that he's a vulcan gives to them the pretext to make their relationship subtle for the most part (but still meaningful and with some more in your face moments) in a way they never could with Kirk or any other human character IMO Spock's vulcan side works like blessings in disguise.
Tbh, I'd rather have them further develop the existing dynamics and characters than introduce too many new ones.
I also like that in the reboot they seem to at least try to make both Kirk and Spock the main characters. Now, Kirk already has his own dynamics with Bones, Uhura, Scotty and, of course, Spock. Spock has only Uhura basically, and the other secondary characters have no dynamics. Adding one more Kirk relationship to develop would compromise the balance and make it all a Kirk show.
But who knows maybe the writers can surprise us. I doubt it (especially with Pegg who honestly doesn't give me the vibe he's a big expert at writing relationships) but everything is possible.