It’s really hard to explain to someone not of my generation or younger. Even simple things like calling someone on the phone (especially someone you’re interested in) instead of texting are considered ‘odd’.
I think the best chance for most men is to meet women via some sort of social hobby outside of work.
Meanwhile, women are unsatisfied too because they are all matching with the most attractive guys, who in turn will have their pick of women. So maybe they’ll hook up and then leave because they have a hundred other matches. Meanwhile if a woman matched someone of her own level of attractiveness, he might stick around longer because he doesn’t have a million other options.
I'm not that old lol, I did a fair bit of online dating (mostly tinder) after my divorce before I met my current partner. My boyfriend and I actually met via a mutual hobby, and I met my ex husband in the pub. But online dating worked well for me especially for hook ups, it does work very well for that for women and if all parties involved can accept it for what it is, there's no resentment.
Women are always told that if they choose the 'nice guys' / average guys, they will stick around longer etc., but my actual experience is, average guys are just as likely to ghost, to be assholes, to waste your time and only want sex than the better looking, more interesting guys. It does not work that way that ugly guys are nice with a good personality and good looking guys are assholes. There's just no connection.
Also, often 'average' guys are average because of things they chose for themselves, like they don't care about personal hygiene, wear crappy clothes, don't get a proper haircut, don't exercise and so on. So it's actually their personality that's reflected in their average looks, and I would personally not want to date someone like that in the hope that he'll not dump me because he has no other options. For example, my current boyfriend could never get a job as a model (and he would not want to either) but he looks after himself, keeps fit, dresses well. I think this would be a good starting point for most guys but there are loads of men that aren't willing to do this much and then blame women for not being able to pull.