It seems to me that the 'holy grail' is a few high quality relationships coupled with a medium-large sized pool of 'outer-layer' relationships. When a couple of

It seems to me that the 'holy grail' is a few high quality relationships coupled with a medium-large sized pool of 'outer-layer' relationships. When a couple of high quality relationships end (for whatever reason, including death), there is a decent size pool to go back to. The medium-large sized pool also allows you to choose the ones that make sense to stick with and remove accordingly. Most people find it hard to balance that, so they are likely better off to have a few high quality relationships without accounting for the outer layers