“What’s wrong is that a useful word has been rendered useless.”
Actually, in the “gay” culture, there was NEVER anything wrong with “partner” to them, as couples until the “gay activist” agenda to deconstruct marriage as it’s always been known. In the context of how it was used it was unequivocally understood as “partners” in romantic couple. Neither “wife” nor “husband” was needed or commonly used, to no one’s dismay.
My point is that there is now no word for a business partner, songwriting partner, comic partner.