...not because of a perfect marriage but because they overcame challenges and obstacles.
I find this to be very true.
I know of couples who stayed together through affairs, addictions, and even couples who came back to reconcile after separation and divorce. This shows the love they have for the life they built together and for their children and the descendants to come.
I have never seen anyone admire divorced people who remarried to someone whom they're never going to have children and build a family with. The public just doesn't find these second-chance relationships where no children are born from the relationship as inspiring or a cause for celebration.
It appears that such relationships are only to benefit the two people in it. For example, if an older divorcee remarries, that relationship really is just so she can have a companion, and not become a burden to her grown children. Her new man isn't exactly going to be daddy to her children. That relationship belongs only to her. And since they don't have children together due to their inability to produce children, what legacy are they really leaving? She has no real value to his clan so if he dies first, welps, that's it for her. Who from his clan is going to keep tabs on her when there is no child to be the link? She is only in their thoughts if she has some relation to them. Perhaps her new man was connected to her maternal clan in some way. If her new man is an introvert who isn't involved with his clan, it's likely that his own clan won't even know much about her.
But married couples who reconcile are viewed as strong and everyone rejoices.
A man whose extra-marital affairs became public scandal threw a retirement party for his wife. The guests showered them with compliments about the longevity of their marriage and hoped their own marriages would outlast the struggles of marital life.
A man abandoned his wife and young children, and married another woman. After 55 years of living separate lives, he found his way back to the first wife and proposed to remarry her. His grown children were overjoyed, and the community rejoiced at their renewed vows.
People like to see families stay in tact. They like to see parents, and grandparents stay together so that children have elders who are their blood.