[Were]/[had been] incompatible from the start

Source:

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/sep/10/letter-to-my-father

Sentence:

I’m now older than you were when you were swept to your death off a high rope bridge in the Scottish Highlands, aged 49. Your young wife, my stepmother, was behind you and could only watch helpless as you fell. Your son was only two. You were fit, exuberantly full of life and happy in your second marriage. This was your chance to be a good father and it was snatched away. For us three children from your first marriage, it was a different story. You left us when we were all under five. That time, it was your choice to leave. You married young, had three children in quick succession and decided domestic life wasn’t for you. When I asked my mother why you had left, she said you didn’t like Edinburgh, the city where you grew up and where I was born. Even as a child that seemed an odd explanation. When I was older, she told me that you’d married after knowing each other for only six months and [had been]/[were] incompatible from the start. You loved adventure and the great outdoors, she preferred to be inside, reading or chatting with friends. She was remarkably forgiving towards the man who’d left her with three young children.

Question:

The past perfect "had been" is used in the original. Does the simple past "were" work instead of the past perfect "had been" in the above passage? Thanks.