Having a wife DOES change the game a lot. Just not towards better in my humble opinion. When the chance to marry first appeared, I had such overly romantic thoughts of it and imagined the wife would help my MC. Hah, was I wrong there! The wife turned immediately into such high and mighty lady that she didn't anymore wish to share the TV-nights and home-dinners with her former slave-sisters, those she hardly recognized anymore. Oh, she could order them around some, but nothing good seemed to follow from that, really.I feel like having a wife, especially a loving one, should change the game a lot. For example if Aria is the wife, she should teach the kids and slaves combat skills. If Caitlin is the wife, she should increase education, science, academics. If Eliana is the wife, she should increase the player's sexual skills because she gives the player sexual tips. If Rebecca is the wife, she should teach manipulation and combat. The list goes on, having a loving/devoted wife should affect the game drastically.
I found my MC spending most of his waking hours of the day taking the young wife to places and letting her nag about a thing or two there. No fucking nor shoveling cash in her trunk was enough to make her happy, though they might have eased the tensions a little bit. It was other entertainment and endless public attention the wife seemed to demand and there was no one else available at the time but my MC to see to the task. Business suffered considerably from marriage and when the kids appeared the family would have easily consumed the time of several people to take care of the kids' education and need of guidance. A need to hire some good and trustworthy entertainers was evident.
Maybe things have improved. Perhaps wife, kids and other stupid issids grave less time-consuming attention these days. I just prefer to stay ignorant rather than make another attempt to seek better knowledge about them.