Outercourse and intercourse

Here's the thing- I want to know whether outercourse can ever really replace intercourse? Or is it more like sweetener is to sugar (and you can taste the difference!).
Not to make light of something that is so difficult. I haven't been able to have intercourse with my partner for a year and a half because of V, and am worse now that when I first got this. I also have endometriosis, they suspect, which causes deep pain that I can feel with dilators or the last time we tried.
Sometimes it's such a relief when we are intimate that I feel like it's more than good enough. Although we are so pent up from the long gaps that it's more like being a teenager (not very romantic, but fun). Anyway. But then I either see a scene in a movie of romantic, loving sex or see some physical cue, and I can't even explain the loss and jealousy that just wells up inside of me. Once I saw him doing pushups and it just sent me into a crying fit.
I'm all for believing that V. gives us the opportunity to explore sex and get away from the missionary rut that some long term couples fall into, and I'm also all for learning about non-penis centred sex. However, I can't seem to actually feel as connected and fulfilled (sorry for the pun) as I did when we were able to have intercourse - like that feeling of "making love" that you can get (not always) from intercourse.
Has anyone been able to make outercourse really replace intercourse, or is the best attitude that it's not a substitute, but it's the next best thing?
xx

I think it depends on the couple and how committed they are to each other and making it work. For me and my now ex it didn't work out because he used to constantly be saying he needed intercourse to feel close to me despite having blow jobs etc whenever he wanted them but he wasn't really committed to trying to make it work out because he'd already got his eye on someone else. I'm not being very positive here am I?! Sorry, if your relationship is good in lots of other ways I do think it can work out yes and I also don't think any of us should rule out the possibility we may be able to have intercourse again at some point in the future. Communication seems to be the key to making these things work and your relationship sounds completely different to how mine was.