I don’t see any issue with the situation as described.
Another vote for it being weird if not necessarily unmanly. I agree with what others have said - it should have been all real family members or all models.
It seems unusual, but not that big a deal. My thinking is, he probably would have preferred to use models for all of them if he could have afforded it. And he couldn’t use himself in the picture for whatever reason (being pictured elsewhere in the brochure is a good enough reason for that).
Maybe “John” was the photographer for the faux-family photo? And maybe hunky hoax hubby took the picture of “John”? But seriously, folks…
I find the situation a little odd, but not emasculating.