This forum has made me so sad today. I think the ILY was genuine. I think Oliver does love Felicity. Are they IN love yet? No, but I would find it hard to believe he could have sold that so well to Slade if those feeling weren't in there somewhere. I also thought Slade goading Oliver about not going for "weak women" was another way to confirm that those feeling are certainly starting to bubble more in the romantic direction (if they're not there already) because (and maybe it's just how I see it) Oliver basically tells him: I didn't because she's not weak with "And you don't even see the danger you're in right now" (sorry I'm sure that's not the exact quote). This also stuck out to me because of Laurel telling Sarah earlier in the season how she wasn't anything like her: so alive, beautiful and strong but I am willing to admit I don't remember the exact words. If he hadn't closed the door with Laurel already this season and done anything but just beam at Felicity during their "moment" then I would have taken it all as I see a lot of you have.
I watched with a large group of ppl, mostly guys, that all saw his "we sold it" as him chickening out. Something they all readily admitted to doing themselves in real life. The writers see what they have with this pair and are going to stretch it as far as they can. Smart move if you ask me cause had they gone any further at the end we as an audience would miss out on the beginning of their romance (thank you to whomever already pointed this out) and no one that ships Olicity (so everyone on the cast except for Katie and all the writers are included here) wants to miss that. Hopefully I'm not wrong but the majority of their development this year has been endgame slow burn 101. Why rush such a wonderful thing?!