Paul is writing to a church he considers to be living in a crisis:
1 Corinthians 7:25-28 (NIV): Now about virgins: I have no command from the Lord, but I give a judgment as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy. 26 Because of the present crisis, I think that it is good for a man to remain as he is. 27 Are you pledged to a woman? Do not seek to be released. Are you free from such a commitment? Do not look for a wife. 28 But if you do marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. But those who marry will face many troubles in this life, and I want to spare you this.
There are many theories about what this crisis is, from a famine, to religious persecution, to the "crisis" of living as a follower of God in these Last Days. But even if there was a particular local crisis in Corinth, I think we should read Paul's words here as applicable in every age of the church. So as he goes on to say:
1 Corinthians 7:29-31 (NIV): hat I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they do not; 30 those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; 31 those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.
Verse 31 in particular makes the most sense if Paul sees the church living in time a cosmic upheaval, not a mere temporal event like a natural disaster or a time of human brutality.
Paul goes on to say why it is "good" not to marry. He does not point to earthly concerns, like difficulties feeding your family, or the risks of imprisonment or martyrdom, but the concerns of someone seeking to serve God in their life. Again, this leads me to interpret the "crisis" as being Paul's emphatic way of showing us that Christians aren't about living The Good Life the world tells us to persue.
1 Corinthians 7:32-35 (NIV): I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs—how he can please the Lord. 33 But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world—how he can please his wife— 34 and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord’s affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world—how she can please her husband. 35 I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord.
So to your question: I think in part we should think of Paul's instructions as being due to "extenuating circumstances", but those extenuating circumstances are ones that apply to all of us who live in this church age, the Last Days. Every Christian serves a role in God's mission, we are not passive adherents. So Paul calls us citizens of heaven, and Peter says that we're "exiles" in this world. The Apostles want us to think of ourselves as not truly belonging to this world, as envoys from a foreign king, here to fulfil a task before we return home.
This makes the most sense of Paul's advocacy of singleness in this chapter. Getting married and having children is never wrong for God's people, and we shouldn't begrudge Christians who do so any more than we would refugees or diplomats who start families outside their homelands. But whereas the vision of the Hebrew Bible, starting from Adam and Eve in the Garden through to Israel in the Promised Land, is of setting down roots and growing godly families, the vision of the church is costly, sacrificial service to the Gospel, taking God's message of his own costly, sacrificial love to every people and nation in the world. The specific mission God has prepared for some of his people will be to marry, have children, meet and befriend the families of their children's schools, and share the Gospel with them all. The specific mission God has prepared for others will be to stay single, to concern themselves with "the Lord's affairs", to be free to uproot themselves at a moment's notice, or to willingly go to dangerous places to tell the Gospel to people who don't want to hear it. There are many societies in the world where a single person will be most able to befriend a segment of the society that a married person would find it hard to break through to.
Lastly, we cannot make the mistake of thinking the only antidote to loneliness is a marriage. Adam was truly alone, the only human in a world of animals. But God does not call his servants into isolation, but into community. If a Christian chooses to follow Paul into singleness they should do so knowing that their church will truly be there to support them at all times, good and bad, as a new family. Christians who do marry must likewise remember that they too are part of this community and they cannot sequester themselves away with their partner.