@Cupcake I have the most recent queued up for when the husband stops vacuuming the hallway outside the office so I can actually tell what's going on. (Wow, I didn't realize how hilariously patriarchy-bird-flipping in itself that statement was until I typed it, and now I'm giggling.)
I actually like that aspect of it, in that it does highlight the difference so well. 'This is how different it is from real world lives' shows when that's shown. (Will try to keep this spoiler-free.) Little details like 'the guide book' and how people are paired up are actually huge, even if they initially seem like fluff. Same with people actively discussing, 'welp, we're gay, but when our time comes to do our duty, you don't totally suck?' These things aren't minor shifts from modern real world society and without some attention paid to the romance foo, we wouldn't see them, know them, or understand that (important) aspect of the world-building, which affects so much more than romance; it's a whole paradigm shift being laid out. I mean, sure, they could have just cut to a lecture class in which some professor just says all of this, but that would be a much less honest depiction of how it actually impacts the characters' lives.
I have a sneaking suspicion this is where we're going to see a lot of the conflict and potentially some of the antagonist faction's issues arise, in that we -- in the real world -- would not be keen on putting up with a lot of that, and if that's one of the objections raised, it gives us in the audience reason to empathize rather than just broad-brush cartoon-villain the group, which is thankfully something most stories are getting better about.
ETA: What gets to me a little is that it's a world as different as, say, The Handmaid's Tale. I see different people complaining about the two series, though, and it's uncomfortable to realize that a lot of typically well-intentioned and fairly woke dudes have issues with Motherland, but not THM... and the ugly question about 'but the women are in charge in one, not the other' creeps into my brain. 