It wasn’t Newt’s best, but it had a lot of nice moments and was a nice historical recap of Newt’s primary adventure so far. Rick’s was the definition of boilerplate and was just plain dull. It’s also just a waste of time and pandering to constantly have Rick line up his whole family as props on the stage and talk about them. I’ve never been asked in a job interview about my family and I care as much about hearing about Rick’s family as my job interviewers cared about mine. The presidency is the toughest job in the world and wasting time on his family just makes Rick look smaller and less qualified to me.
You're welcome to your opinion. I may even agree on families being of minimal relevance in the real world (except that severely dysfunctional families are an indicator of lack of ability to lead one’s own home).
However, most politicians make quite a point of emphasizing their families. I can't think of any local or state candidate I've known since the 1980s who hasn't focused on their family unless there was something seriously wrong at home, and the same is usually true for federal candidates, especially when campaigning in conservative areas to conservative family-oriented audiences.
It's just the way it's done.