I agree with you 100%.
I have also been told this is not a dogma of the Church and priests and popes were married up till sometime in the Middle Ages. (Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.)
Celibacy for priests is a disciplinary decision and is not a matter of dogma. However, priests have not been allowed to marry in the Western Church since the very earliest centuries, and bishops have never been permitted to marry; doctrine and practice develop over time, based on precedent, and this was how it evolved in the Latin Rite. A rich theology of clerical celibacy has grown up around it.
There have, of course, often been corrupt clergy, including members of the heirarchy, who had their live-in girlfriends, illegitimate children, etc. But they are hardly a model to be followed, and much effort was expended trying to clean up practice in this area.
Another thing that affected it was the fact that forcing priests to marry was one of the first things that heretical groups or the Muslims did. When the Muslims captured parts of Spain, priests married (either in reality or in appearance) in order to be able to continue to secretly function as priests without attracting the attention of the Islamic authorities. The Protestants also forced priests to marry when they took over parts of Europe, and even evicted monks and nuns from their monasteries and forced them into “marriages.”
Clerical celibacy is an ancient sign of the Roman Catholic Church and it is usually one of the first targets of attackers.