Unfortunately “love” means a lot of different things. If you answer “what is the best thing about romantic relationships?” with “love” then you haven’t done anything to distinguish e.g. “feelings of gooey happiness in one another’s presence” from “fierce commitment to giving the other person as good a life as possible” from “accepting the other person no matter what they do or what happens to them” from etc., etc.
I think it’s highly debatable whether what John is describing is “love” in any of the usual senses of that word. It’s clearly related to it, just as it’s related to (say) trust, but it’s not the same thing.
Even if it is, John has identified (or at least claims to have identified) a very specific thing about the phenomenon that is much more specific than “love”.
Unfortunately “love” means a lot of different things. If you answer “what is the best thing about romantic relationships?” with “love” then you haven’t done anything to distinguish e.g. “feelings of gooey happiness in one another’s presence” from “fierce commitment to giving the other person as good a life as possible” from “accepting the other person no matter what they do or what happens to them” from etc., etc.
I think it’s highly debatable whether what John is describing is “love” in any of the usual senses of that word. It’s clearly related to it, just as it’s related to (say) trust, but it’s not the same thing.
Even if it is, John has identified (or at least claims to have identified) a very specific thing about the phenomenon that is much more specific than “love”.