There are many members on this forum, including myself, who first met there wives, fiancees or gf's online and I don't think many of them would have looked upon them as just "dream partners", by whick I assume you mean "unreal".
There has to be something real there for both partners, a genuine attraction Especially for the man (most often) who is eventually prepared to fly 6,000 miles to a strange third world country to meet his cyber gfand move things on to another level.
I also know from girls I have spoken to and from postings on this site, how hard the girls work on preparation for the arrival of their, "up until now" cyber bf, quite often losing much needed earnings and even borrowing money to make everthing perfect for him. There has to something there for both parties before each would decide to take things this far.
Iain.