Very interesting. I enjoyed all of that and agreed with it.

I think society would be a lot better if there _were_ overt ways of signalling "very good platonic friend" as a public relationship. As someone who has been wrongly accused by onlookers/other friends of having romantic relationships with both women and men who were close friends, it would be nice not to worry about that confusion. I tend to form very close platonic friendships. Indeed, one of the big logistical benefits of marriage for me has been the fact that people assume (correctly of course :) ) that all of my other relationships are platonic without any annoying and overly personal discussions.