Maybe there lives weren't so great, I mean after everything they went through (the ones that survive). Nothing as special as surviving on a magical island could have happened.

I mean, for example, maybe Kate and Sawyer got together in the orginal timeline, maybe not but we don't know, its left open. But if they did they didn't love each other as much as they did Jack and Juliet. What matters is they are all united by what happened to them.
The only survivors of the original timeline at the church were Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, Claire, Dess and Penny, and they all were very close with their dead friends.
Hurley had lost Libby his love and Charlie his best friend
Claire gets to be with Kate, aaron and Chawlie
Sawyer back with juliet who he lost
Kate back with Jack who she lost
and Des and Pen obviously would be together when they died, and Des and Jack had a special kind of love, Des and Pen had a connection with Chawlie

all the others died before the end so the island was the best part of their life anyway