This argument that "actually shonen has to have homoerotic subtext because female characters aren't developed" has to be the dumbest take I've seen yet from a certain section of the anime community. It feels like an offshoot of this homophobic idea spread recently that men are misogynistic because they're secretly gay. It's not just nonsensical but also insulting to the gay artists who have created wonderful works about women.
Female characters in shonen mangas are often underdeveloped and reduced to eye-candy, prizes for the hero or housewives because that's precisely how those straight mangakas view women. Like, don't any of you know James Bond ? Imagine calling James Bond of all characters "homoerotic" because he treats women like trash.
By saying "a work has to be homoerotic if female characters are treated as inferior to male characters", you're just proving that you understand nothing about sex and sexuality. Quiet as its kept, a lot of straight men associate sexualization with degradation. For many men there is nothing more humiliating than being "treated like a woman" and sexual objectification is a big part of being "treated like a woman". It's precisely because they don't lust over other men that those straight mangakas give more depth and humanity to their male characters. Because they don't primarily see them as sexualized objects to be used and discarded. It's also why in the rare occasion where a male character is sexualized in shonen, he's almost always noticeably feminine with long hair, narrow waist, thick eyelashes, fashionable clothes, etc.
Also, what makes homoerotic subtext is just... homoerotic subtext in itself. Female characters being centered or not have no bearing on that. An example of a show with actual homoerotic subtext (unlike the average shonen) is Scream Queens. Chad's character claims to be straight but is often put into situations that make the viewers question his sexuality. And yet the whole show centers women ! Shocking, I know. The male characters are quite useless and it's female characters who all drive the plot (the Chanels, Grace, Zayday, Dean Munsch, Denise, Hester). And even if you take something that would be closer to shonens (by virtue of being targeted to teens) like High School Musical 2, it has a clear homoerotic song between Ryan and Chad (what's up with Chads lol) and yet the main storyline also very much centers Gabriella and Sharpay. Hell, Sharpay became so popular that she was the only character to get her own spin-off ! Nobody cared as much for the male characters, including the main character Troy.
Finally, words have specific meanings. Subtext has to be done intentionally to be subtext, otherwise it's just your personal interpretation of a work. If you prefer shipping male characters with each other than shipping canon straight couples then just say it. No need to justify this with pseudo-intellectual babble.
