Get your facts right. The Church recognizes civil divorce insofar as it regulates child support and protects the innocent. What the Church does not recognize is the claim that civil divorce permits remarriage.
Annulment does not permit remarriage. It involves a court proceeding that reaches a conclusion that a valid sacramental marriage never existed. A marriage after an annulment is not a remarriage but a first marriage.
Annulments are granted too frequently. On the other hand, in a culture sopping with divorce mentality, it is possible that men and women “marry” today thinking that divorce is a way out. If so, they did not make an irrevocable promise and no sacramental marriage took place. It’s a travesty that Catholic young people are so screwed up by the divorce culture. But the church courts also have been too lenient.
That will change. It should have changed long ago. The annulment process has been abused. But you mischaracterized it.
Abused or not, the universally accepted current practice sets the definition. Annulments are seldom denied Catholics; if enough money is offered, and they go through the correct motions and make the right statements, there is seldom any denial. It's possible for a civil marriage to exist for years, with children being produced, and then the Church can declare the couple "never married," while the children are NOT declared illegitimate. Unbelievable hypocrisy.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not singling out Catholicism. Virtually every Christian denomination is guilty of this perversion of scriptural marriage. I'm only aware of a couple of congregations which take the marriage-related scriptural admonitions seriously. And, yes, they severely restrict the potential size of their congregations by doing so. But they have purity and power that mere size can't supply.