Players asked for more things to do in peacetime and they gave us an elaborate party planning DLC. I don't want to sound needlessly sexist here but every design choice post launch seems like it was made by a woman that wishes she was working on Sims expansions.
Planning grand social events was a crucial part of historical elite life. The way they did it is a bit limited of course, and you might argue that priority wise it is more of a tier 2 thing, but it does make sense. And it connects to their core "travel" feature. I of course prefer my own version of "Social Occasions" but their version is a solid 6/10.
However you are correct in some sense. Paradox is putting out a product to compete with The Sims 4 called, hideously, "Life By You". Additionally CK3 drew in many women who explicitly mentioned The Sims: Medieval as a point of comparison. And they are also pushing a Sims 4 style content pipeline for DLCs to make that Sims 4 cash. The Sims is arguably one of the few series with a more insane DLC policy than what Paradox puts out. A majority of PDox streamers who are women stream Sims 4 also, including prominent ones. There's definitely something going on.
I think you'd have more credibility if you specified which things you think should come before travel/events, though.