I’ve been there thanx, my Dad worked for the King Fahd Hospital for a while in the 80s..
Saudi Arabia has amongst the highest divorce rates in the world (60% in some parts) so I doubt that veneer of happiness u reckon u’ve seen in polygynous marriages is all it seems..
You also mentioned a man and his ‘wives’ looking happy in a shopping mall lol no offence but that’s pretty shaky I mean how do u know those women weren’t sisters or even his daughters..
I am not saying the setup never works, only that one shoud be v.v.cautious and it tends to only work well in societies where all the wives and families can have legal status, the person can actually afford to keep these families (in time and monetary terms) and they know in advance of what is going to happen, not this whole thing of ‘living a lie’ where a man disappears for half the week then it all comes out months or years down the line and wife and kids are left devastated..