It's a different thing once you are married. Speaking as a man, anyway, it changes the way you think about the relationship that may be hard to understand until

It's a different thing once you are married. Speaking as a man, anyway, it changes the way you think about the relationship that may be hard to understand until you go through the experience. The ceremony of it, particularly if you are primarily married in the religious context, with the state being an afterthought formality, is important. Purely on a legal basis with the state though, there is more overhead to severing the relationship, so it would function to encourage reconciliation. Fundamentally, society has an interest in stable nuclear families because reasons, and marriage supports that interest.