I'm with Phelix here. There are most definitely cases in which the wife deserves alimony (and, rarer but still existing, cases in which the husband deserves alimony). Men in many of the highest-paying jobs - CEO's, say, top surgeons, that sort of thing - spend so much time on their job that most of the household and care of the children has to fall on their partner's shoulders, who as a result has it difficult in her (or his) professional career. In very few families does the couple think it desirable for both partners to make the kind of family sacrifices required for a career in the top echelons of many fields - and I think most people will agree with that, that it's really not a good idea to leave kids to be raised by the housekeeper or whatever, with the parents always gone. Hence, there's almost inevitably one partner in such families who sacrifices his or her career, not necessarily entirely but at least to some degree, for the sake of the other. That is not a "poor life choice", that is labour division between a married couple. And when that married couple decides to get a divorce, then yes, the partner who made sacrifices should get something in return.

Now you do say that there's a right to get half of what was earned during the marriage, or what remains of it, which in some cases may be sufficient, but there are certainly situations in which that just isn't enough. Take a couple, let's see, gets kids at thirty, divorces at forty-five, wife has largely given up her career, maybe kept working part-time or some such. With your suggestion, she'd get her share of what remains of the earnings during their marriage, but nothing more? She's been prevented from serious career progression during fifteen years, while her husband kept working and progressing, and at forty-five is beginning to reach a level where he makes good money. And then when they divorce you think it's fair for both of them to just continue where they are, with no compensation of any kind for the woman having put her career on hold for all those years? It really isn't.