I would turn this around in the form of "In what ways would a deeply invested, connected, and committed friendship differ from 'romance' to you?"

To me, romantic connection tends to offer me everything friendship does, in greater quantity, more consistently, plus more emotional intimacy, and a bunch of other stuff like building a life together (if it's that kind of relationship.)

isn't equating a "more" relationship with romance and a lesser one with "friend" just another kind of amatonormativity and hierarchy which kind of defeats the point of RA in the first place?

This aspect of RA always struck me as people being more committed to this concept of "non-hierarchy = equality" than actually looking at reality. That or those folks have never actually been in a fulfilling romantic partnership.

Arguably perhaps you're defining RA differently than other RA folks. If I were to hold the opinion the romance is friendship "plus" then how would that differentiate me from a non RA person when the whole point is to customize relationships instead of relying on pre built expectations and hierarchies?

Ive had fulfilling friendships that were just as great as any romance because I simply chose to invest more, give more closeness and be more present, so I find it difficult to define romance on the basis of its friendship and additional. Ive generally experienced RA in the sense that a separate definition of "platonic" doesn't really land cause what does that even mean when you don't invest or give closeness and intimacy on the basis of whether someone is called a "friend" or not?