There has been a handful of quasi-love interests in the original world before that guy, though most of those didn't get too far either.
Moreoever, that particular guy's every actions were basically a thousands time worse than NL (and those aren't too good either) to the point he couldn't be taken as a serious lead at all. His death was pure bulshit too, as not only was he left alive a few times for no reason whatsoever, but his actual death made no sense given he would have been around 5 levels below Su Luo at the time. Beside, there were plenty of people Su Luo had no problem trampling and taking advantage of, so the whole thing really left a sour taste personally.