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> sex is a crucial part of any loving relationship

s/any/most/

This is a fundamental misunderstanding of what love is. I'm sure there are plenty parents, siblings, etc. that would be quite appalled to learn from you that they can't experience love without having sex with each other.

Cheap shot. It's clear that the comment was about love/relationship between partners.

Eros.

Sex is one way to express intimacy, which can be a sign of, but is not the same thing as love. Quite trivially observable in any loving relationship between people who can't physically have sex because say a partner is disabled. Or just between couples who have been married for 50 years. Probably not as active in the bedroom compared to their 20s, but not less in love (probably the opposite).

Conflating sex and physical attraction with love is a very modern phenomenon, and I think may have something to do with the instability of relationships.