As someone who had 'dabbled' in TOGoM based fics it's clear that the major draw is the ability to showcase Lois' feeling for Clark at a time where they were 'in flux' for her.
Clark was her best friend, but nothing more?
It's easy to use that traumatic event as a trigger for Lois' feelings for Clark to begin to change as was indicated by the final scene.
But this was only season two, and much too early to have the Lois and Clark relationship change too drastically. Thus the writers had to add in the falling asleep aspect so Lois could 'back off' for a time.
The basic A plot was pretty stupid, but the fandom in general tends to gloss over that because of the emotional content.
Tank (who has read several fics where Clark wasn't really asleep, merely faking)
