To me, there were only 2 ongoing love stories (Leckie and Vera, Basilone and Lena). Stella, Virginia Grey, Sid's girl in Australia, those were all flings.

The Phoenician love machines

Why not love stories? The American boys made their romanci pursuits all over the world.
I was a small boy in the years after WWII, but it was only years later that I realized that many, many Japanese, Australian, British, French, and Chinese war brides were brought home to our then-small city of Phoenix, Arizona.
Most of those women are now gone. Many of them were great Phoenicians.

I've read every single book by or about the individuals portrayed in "The Pacific" and feel the relationships to the men was a signficant part of their stories. Omitting them would have reduced the series to a Pacific version of BoB, which it is not. Unlike "Band of Brothers", this mini-series doesn't start in boot camp and doesn't focus on a singular group of men, but the stories of individuals. The series starts in the homes/hometowns of the main individuals BEFORE going off to war. The personal relationships also serves as a significant contrast to the horrors of the war (which are displayed much more graphically than BoB). I think it offers a poignant perspective of what that generation of young men left behind, suffered through, lost and how they had to resume life when they returned home. While I love BoB, "The Pacific" offers a much broader view of the war's impact on those who went through it.

The episode in Melbourne is my second favorite of the whole series. I appreciate your observations as well! Good points.

Interesting theory. I had no problems with the love theme in the series. If anything it was sort of a welcome break from the horror of war that we see in a lot of the other episodes. If the whole series was just episodes full of brutal fighting, what kind of series would that be?