Honestly, I've always found the Sally Avril thing a bit of a deep cut. She's a waitress at the coffee shop Peter frequents, the one he goes to when he's avoiding his problems or just needs a normal human interaction. It's a tiny role, but that's the point. She's a fixture of his 'civilian' New York, a person who knows Peter Parker, not Spider-Man. In a world where his identity is constantly under threat, those mundane connections become these little anchors. She's part of the rhythm of his life—bad day? Swing by the coffee shop, get a nod from Sally.
Her presence underscores how fragmented his life is. He can have a completely ordinary conversation with her about the weather or a bad tip, and five minutes later he's webbing up a supervillain. That contrast never stops being compelling. She represents the normalcy he's constantly sacrificing and trying, often failing, to protect. She's not a love interest or a plot device; she's just a person in his neighborhood, and in a superhero story, that can be more meaningful than another grand cosmic event.