> My point was just that marrying someone to financially support you used to be culturally accepted, maybe even expected, and now it is less so.

Man marrying his wive to financially support him was accepted and expected? Really?

It absolutely was accepted - not in terms of being supported by her labour, but “marrying up” ie marrying someone from a family of higher social standing and wealth to improve your own station was a common aspiration of a middle class man.

Before the 20th century marriage and inheritance was practically the only way to climb the social ladder and acquire meaningful wealth. It’s basically half of what Balzac wrote about.