I've still not read it (though it sounds pretty cool), but that might be one of the things that dates it. I think the slash fic without sex scenes was a less rare breed than it is now --and it is by no means extinct. You can't define slash by saying it's about sex, that isn't all there is to it, or even the biggest thing. But it *is* very important. I bet that's very difficult to describe to the outside world where any one of the ingredients of slash (pop culture, 'derivative works', porn) are enough to have everyone automatically dismiss the whole thing.

but shouldn't any sort of well-written sex involve an emotional connection between the characters?

I'm very, very tempted to say no, though in slash it almost always does.

Not quite coherently articulated somewhat tangential thought: sometimes the wider slash community doesn't so much seem to be writing about sex, as sex about writing.