For me, Spuffy is different because he was not her first love. I do not think you can be friends with your first love. Like Spike says in 'Lovers Walk', "You're not friends. You'll never be friends. You'll be in love till it kills you both." Its interesting that neither Buffy or Angel argues with him.
Spike and Buffy are true friends. They have been through so much together and had arrived at a place of real mutual trust and affection.
I believe Buffy loves Spike, yes. But not in the way she loves Angel. I believe her when she says she will never love anyone more than him. Spike introduced her, in my opinion, to a different kind of love. Sure, it was sort of backwards, but in the end, they arrived at the right place, you know?
And I think I've said this before, but I believe Buffy was denial about her love for Spike until it was too late. I don't think she thought she was lying when she told him "I can't love you." She truly, at that point, believed that. In Buffy's moral universe, it was highly problimatic for her to love a soulless vampire. Spike died right after she told him she loved with him for the first time.
How will we never know if they can then be "in love" and friends? What I'm saying is that we don't know how that situation would play out.
I see what you mean.
Regarding the 'Lovers Walk' speech and the fact that neither Buffy nor Angel argue with him, my only thing to say to that is that that was then, and this is now. Back then, I don't think they were friends. I think in the second half of season three, a friendship begins to develop within their more romantic relationship, the way they talk to each changes and the slushiness subsides, a little anyway 😉 So what I'm basically saying is that as much as I think that speech was true of Buffy and Angel then, I don't think applies now. And I'm not entirely convinced Spike would feel that way now either.