Agree, life is too short. It's possible to self improve and date simultaneously. People have sexual needs.
This needs to be an automatic approach. IOIs are not easy to come by. Millennial women are notoriously poor at signaling, something I learned in the early 2010s. I doubt Gen Z's are any better at this.
The problem with this is that most men won't run into enough women this way. For instance, if a man grocery shops as normal, he won't see enough women to approach in the 20-30 minutes it would take to grocery shop, even if he selects a grocery store in a singles dense area. He must slow it down to take at least 1-2 hours.
At a gym, a man will typically have better results going to a fitness class than on the general gym floor. When you go to a fitness class, you're taking a "loss" of 45-60 minutes for the 5 min window before and 5 min window of after classes to approach. The "loss" of attending a fitness class isn't a bad loss because you will get in a solid workout during those 45-60 minutes. It might not be your ideal workout because it's not typically going to be a heavy lifting class. Additionally, not all women are sociable at classes (a small percentage area) but that small percentage is better than the closed off, earbud wearing women typically on the gym floor. Classes themselves are often 65-80% women (great ratio) depending on the class format. A lot of the women already have boyfriends/husbands and are not actively looking to replace, even if you use boyfriend destroyer lines.
Cold approach is a more difficult path to achieve relational goals than social circle introductions, especially if your goal is some sort of extended relationship (6 months or more). Men with social networks typically deal with less aggravations in their efforts to get laid and get laid consistently. Let's note that it is easiest for most men to get laid consistently within a relationship. Men with social networks tend to be more blue pill men with long term relationships, even marriages. A man's social circle will get annoyed in feeding him prospects if most of his interactions are one night stands and casual sex. Additionally, these short term interactions have a tendency to damage social networks. If a guy is able to get 1-3 years out of most interactions, the social circle is less likely to get pissed off. Often times, the social circle setups result in 5+ year relationships with marriages and babies.
