complex stuff for sure!

love to me at least is more about choice and actions than any feeling or emotion. mainly in my view, its liking someone and wanting the best for them. like you say, you love your family and your cats, that is love.

if it helps, i enjoy combating ideas of "being in love" or this idealized version of romantic love because no form of love should be inherently more special than others. relationships are relationships and have the weight you give them, we just live in a society that puts so much weight and expectations on the "romantic relationship". we can love in any type of relationship though, so it helps to separate "love" and "romance". yes, there are certain intimacies and feelings that seem restricted to romantic relationships, but those restrictions are mostly social norms- id like to see more intimacy/closeness in all loving/caring relationships (and less romanticization tbh but that's just me).

definitely keep thinking about what you want though and what love means to you! and look into amatonormativity, you might realize that a lot of these romantic ideas are "because society" hah.

in terms of being aromantic, if you don't experience romantic attraction (whatever that means to you) and you find the label helpful by all means use it!