I am all for this with all my heart. Yes, our characters are not voiced or have a definite backstory, but it's not like it stopped Knights of the Old Republic or Skyrim from having romance in them( although "romance" is a stretch in Skyrim's case), and it's not like romance has never appeared in MMOs before *looks at SWTOR*. And yes, I know the devs ridiculed the likes of us who want this seriously to be a thing by making an April Fool's joke about it, but I guess if one doesn't shout about something, they definitely won't be heard, whilst if they do, there is a very small probability they might be, so I guess I'll just say my two cents( which probably will turn into a monologue because I don't speak short).

There are quite a few people( myself among them) who don't find the marriage system appealing at all. Me, for example, I don't have an IRL partner at the moment, let alone one who plays FFXIV, so it doesn't appeal to me in the "I want to show how much I love my partner in the game too" way. I am also not that excited about the items that it offers( they are neat, but I can live without them), not to the point that I would marry out of sheer pragmatism to get them, only to throw the ring away a week later. I probably wouldn't get married even if I RPed in this game( as a person who previously RPs in another MMO and is currently the GM in her guild, I have realized that it is very hard to build a romantic relationship between my OC and someone else's OC, due to the sheer amount of coordination and meticulous planning it requires). And I am not interested in smooching someone else's character, whom I barely know and have little to no emotional investment in. I also know that I am not the only one who feels this way. I have talked to other people on Discord who are just as disinterested in it as I am, whether it be due to sheer lack of emotional investment, lack of a partner who plays the game, or any other reason.

I do, however, know a lot of people who are very invested in the game's story and ship their characters with NPCs, so to speak. They write fanfiction, make fan art, you name it, because they actually do love these characters and their dynamics with the Warrior of Light. To them, this is much more interesting than the in-game marriage system we currently have, and I believe their wishes are valid too. There is a crowd that would like such a thing, but they feel discouraged to say anything about it because of the April Fool's joke.

I personally doubt I would use this system on my main for reasons that are a different conversation altogether( my alt would definitely jump on Ser Aymeric both figuratively and literally though :P), but what I am trying to say is that there are people who certainly would enjoy this, and there is more of them than it would initially seem. Which is why I thought I would write about this and show my support. This may not be high on my wishlist, but I support this for people who want it.