In an ideal world, ChristianMiller (and I second Sky's welcome) what you say would be great. Unfortunately, we do not live in that world and it is such a distant future that I cannot agree to base public policy upon it.
I was a divorce lawyer for many years. I saw the consequences of "relationships." People are vicious, thoughtless and selfish. Despite gains by women, they are not on an equal footing with men when it comes to negotiating marital contracts. That might offend some, but I saw thousands of examples of the disparity.
So, I am suggesting some governmental policy respecting couples is warranted, even if a temporary measure. For the ideal world you depict to arrive, schools would need to spend a great deal more time teaching basic legal and monetary principles so that everyone could be said to have an equal footing.
Then there is the matter of children. Again, my experience is that parents tend to be very bad with respect to their children when they fight or break up. Like it or not, the now intricate legal system that exists does provide some protection for children and either party who is psychologically unable to completely fend for themselves.
It would be great if everyone was well informed, thoughtful, careful and responsible in relationships. I don't know of such a world and until it exists, some laws are needed to regulate relationships.
That doesn't have to be called "marriage", frankly, the civil union route seems better, but also a very long way off.
ChristianMiller, you are new so I suspect you do not know what others and I have written on this topic, but you may wish to do a search here and take a look.
It is not an easy one to resolve, and I applaud your joining in as you have.
But as a gay man, first treat me equally, then we can talk about a revolution.
