For as long as I can remember, there have been persistent whisperings that in the earlier years of the medinah, weddings of many secular kibbutzniks were deliberately conducted using ???? ?????? so that the chuppa would be invalid. The justification was that marital morals were, how to put it delicately, not strongly observed (after marriage!). So, to avoid ????? ??? ??? the Rabbanut conducted itself in the aforementioned manner. Whether this is true or not — and whether this is da’as Torah of the gedolei Torah — I cannot say.
Regarding the matter of mesora and changing it. Some people seem to think that OK, halachic questions need a posek who is a Talmid Chacham to rule on them. But, if something seems to be a “mere” custom, well then every Tom, Dick, and Harry, any ba’al habayis, especially if he learned a bit in yeshiva once upon a time — is a qualified opinion on matters of minhag and mesora. Only Talmidei Chachamim whose entire existence is toiling in Torah, are qualified to establish new minhagim, or to change existing ones. These practices are a part of our jurisprudence no less than “explicit” (?????) halachos. WE do NOT meddle with mesora! Nor do we “make changes all the time.” Sometimes, there are differing opinions — among the poskei halacha — on certain customs. The yekkishe minhag regarding waiting between fleishigs and milchigs comes to mind. There are others as well. And please don’t counter this with cases that the gemara says ??? ??? ??? ??? ???, because those were cases where there was no definite minhag in that particular place. So, under such circumstances, there could be a decision to “go see how people conduct themselves.” And that too was a halachic ruling for that specific situation. It never meant, “if it’s ‘just’ a minhag, we can always do whatever we like.” Chas ve’shalom. It’s worth remembering that the earliest deviations of what turned into the Reform Movement began by meddling with “mere” minhagim (observing Yomtov sheini shel galuyos, reciting yekum purkan on Shabbos).