Why does the house need to be spotless whenever guests come over?

I understand cleaning spotless for holidays or birthdays, but when having friends come over who also have kids, I don't see a need to have every toy put away and all freshly surfaces wiped and vacuumed.

This rant coming after I spend most of an afternoon/evening tidying and doing various house chores. House got cleaned from a D to a B. The next day I take both kids out and give my wife 3.5 hours alone in the house so she can get some alone time and do her hobbies. But she is annoyed that she "had" to spend a good chunk of that time doing her usual chores and more house cleanup, and we have to have the house be an A or A+.

Can't we all parents agree that we have kids and the natural state of the house is to have at least some mess present?