“Short route out” of what? They weren’t married in the first place; so I suppose it would be the “short route out” of a relationship of living in sin, perhaps into another … how can that be good?
all marriages are presumed to be valid, and if capable of being sacramental, are presumed sacramental until shown otherwise. Rightly, wrongly or indifferently, for one wgho is baptized Catholic, they are required to follow Church corm (marriage witnessed by a priest or deacon) unless specifically allowed otherwise.
Someone who is nominally Catholic - baptized as an infant but never catechized, e.g., must follow this form. Failing to do so, if the marriage (which is putatively valid and sacramental) ends up in a divorce, they have the short route through a determination that it was null sacramentally by showing their failure to follow form. The alternative for most people is a hearing by a tribunal, which is then reviewed by a second tribunal. that takes, on average, a year or more; given recent statistics on who has received a decree of nullity, it looks like about a 45% chance of receiving one.
Those who marry according to God’s plan — chastity before marriage, a sacramental marriage, open to life — have a better chance of having it “work” to begin with.
I most certainly do not disagree with you, and I hope that you did not take my comment as doing so. I have not gone back and reviewed the OP, but I believe the scenario presented was one of a person baptized as a child, not catechised, later marrying “outside” the Church.
We are all pretty good at getting ourselves into messes; usually it is through sin. In this case, for one who was never catechized, that is harder to pin down; however, given a divorce rate of around 50% for first time marriages, @ 65% for second and higher as one goes along, it is a reality of life. Not one to be wished on a dog, let alone a person. But a reality still.
Those who live according to God’s plan to have a much better choice. And sometimes they marry someone who didn’t, or doesn’t.
If the statistics for those simply shacking up carry over to marriage (and I have seen the statistics of the former, but not the latter), then those who don’t follow God’s plan before marriage - chastity - are even higher at risk than a 50% chance. But that is fodder for another post.
As to whether they were married in the first place, it helps to be careful with language. They certainly were recognized as married by the state and the federal governement; possibly by the bank, and most likely by friends and neighbors. That they did not have a sacramental marriage is most likely - always subject to review by a tribunal to assure that the facts are really thus. But to simply say they were not married, without distinguishing what you mean by the term “married” is to muddy the waters.
, self-discovery 
, and spiritual growth :dts: that will help avoid similar problems :banghead: in future marriages.