You ask:
Well... of course no one would want ANYTHING to detract from story features. But that antithesis is fallacious. A romance story is a story feature. And, if done well (as is true in regard to any story feature) can propell many diverse and complex plots. Think about the Arthurian tales and the way the plot is enriched by the tiangle of Arthur-Guinevere-Lancelot, the adventure of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, or even the way the plot is started to begin with with Uther's love (or lust) for Igraine. Tristan and Isolde is a story entirely based on a romance plot, as is in its own way the Odyssey. The Iliad, the Argonautica, the Aenaid, the Kalevala, the Mahabharata, the tales of Cu Chulainne all contain stories of love and romance. These stories are not antithetic or detract from the adveturous heroic sides of the story, but instead intesify it. Even in places where the hero chooses to sever the romance early on (like in the Aenaid, or the Argonautica), that action serves to intensify the drama, and lit other aspects of the hero's destiny, agenda, goals, and character. So I think a better way to phrase this question would be: Do you consider a romance plot as important story within the game?