Marriage is not and should not be a singular entity.
Marriage on the frontier did not behave like marriage in the city. The most efficient balance of responsibilities and relationship structure for husband and wife are different in these two places because of environmental and social pressures, so the institution changed to meet the people and not the other way around.
The state's involvement in marriage in general has made it a singular entity. By applying inescapable and intense pressure with state power (taxes and incentives, laws and regulations), the culture is forcibly scrunched up into 'one view of marriage'. It has compensated by making new and inferior alternatives that would be unnecessary otherwise, like cohabitation and banging without claiming any relationship status.
>>91762
Marriage was incredibly efficient for much of human history with minimal coercion, but it's true that the damage is basically done and stripping the government out like the tumor it is would leave a gaping wound.
This should be a lesson on state power:
>Governments break things fast,
>the culture heals painfully slow.
One incorrigible decision to "fix things" will lead to decades of suffering if you fuck up.