The Troubador twist wasn't romantic love, but the sublimation of romantic love into pure narrative with little or no physical contact.

Not the sublimation of romantic love, but the sublimation of sexual desire into chaste obsession (the symbol of the Rose, oh dear me...). It is argued that literary descriptions of romantic love evolved out of this, eventually influencing the consensus on love across society and finally actual behaviour.

But, in itself, the courtly love ethos referred back to previous myths. Like the heart being pierced by the arrow of Eros -- being smitten. To what extent was that narrative suggested by actual experience..?