I stumbled across this thread and was so interested that I had to pen a reply.

My knee-jerk reaction to the question was that no, Lex would not have been interested in Lois in a world without a Superman. Then I asked myself, why not?

Lois is, as other's have pointed out, a beautiful, clever, feisty woman. (Or, perhaps I should say, has Mad Dog tendencies). Of these character traits, I think the only one that would have attracted Luthor is her beauty. He only expressed a desire to be interviewed by her after he'd met her at the White Orchid Ball, i.e. when he knew what she looked like. Before that, he had given her the run around, dodging all her requests for an appointment. And, surely, all her efforts to nail that Luthor interview were indicative of her mad dog tendencies. So, clearly, he wasn't attracted by those.

It was only when Lois lost interest in the Lex interview and stopped chasing him that Lex seemed to start chasing her. Gerry, you said:
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He told Superman in the pilot, "Let the games begin." I think that the proposal and marriage were part of the game.
That for me sums the matter up far more eloquently that I could have put it myself.

Without Superman, and the idea that Lois was something desired by a man Lex saw as the only serious competition in town, I don't think Lex would have taken his relationship with Lois in the direction that he did.

The more I think about it, though, the more I think he would have tried to have a fling with her in a fashion somewhat akin to the one her had with Miranda: "You were an itch. You've been scratched."

That's just my opinion, and it is not one that is set in stone -- more in a kind of soggy concrete mix, really. I have no problem in the idea that, without a Superman, Lois and Lex might have got together. I'd like to know why it had happened, but I don't think I need to be convinced that it would.

Note that I think that the idea of Lois deciding to marry Lex in this scenario is much easier to swallow than Lex wanting to marry Lois (even though one does, rather, require the other!).

Chris