I've read the Tractorbeam story (or at least the first) - I enjoyed it a lot, but I suspect I'd have enjoyed it more if I'd seen the TV show it's based on? But today I have read a Splash AU and a reworking of Tootsie. And there was a FANTASTIC spy one by fleshflutter that was like mainlining a whole season of Alias, only with added gay.
I have concluded that it's cracktastic AUs I'm enjoying, rather than RPF. Just random RPF that's recognisably about the actors does still squick me. (Which isn't to say I won't read it, but - mostly it squicks me.) But this whole cracktastic AU thing is like something else entirely - it's kind of like acting out a story with your Barbie dolls. Only, you know - awesomer. And especially cracktastic slash AUs, which are of course what I'm mostly looking at - it's fascinating what changes are wrought. I mean, I like the Sabrina fic more than the original movie. It actually makes more sense for the Linus character to be a closet case than to be an asexual workaholic.
So - whether the AUs are about real people or fictional people kind of doesn't matter. It's like suddenly I realise that the whole world can be crazy gay penguins, you know?