Confessions of a Liberal Puritan

...Scotty’s and McCoy’s love interests also get deep-sixed within the episode, and I don’t recall Uhura ever having a love interest.

Yeah, that was the old "Bonanza Syndrome" of episodic television. The regular characters had to maintain their relationships with each other in pretty much the same shape from week to week and remain available for future guest-star love interests, so if it ever got SERIOUS, as in "I might actually make a permanent commitment to you and thereby change many things about my life and living conditions", then the serious love interest had to DIE!

The only time I remember them giving Uhura a semi-genuine romantic moment (not just being forced to kiss Kirk under alien influence) was in the second aired episode "Man Trap", where the salt vampire took on the form of a handsome black crewman who spoke Swahili in order to try to lure Uhura into some secluded corner and kill her for the salt in her body. What a rip-off! Of course, that was also the episode in which they let her tease Spock on the bridge about how he should be saying romantic things to her, instead of just boring ship's stuff ("Vulcan has no moon." "Mr. Spock, I'm not surprised.") After that, the closest she came to a REAL on-ship romance was when she and Spock used to play music together in their off-hours, with her singing an occasional flirtatious song at Spock, which he seemed to take in his imperturbable stride, though with perhaps a glint of friendly tolerance and enjoyment.