I am about to cut off my old friend group that I've been friends with for 15+ years. Two of them are always busy (have kids/married), but even before that they never made time or any effort to maintain our friendship. The other 3rd guy in our group is single but he has the same issues as the other two, so no excuses really. I am the only one keeping our friendship alive for the past several years, by always taking the intitiative, reaching out, suggesting things for us to do, setting up plans, etc. So, **** it, I'm 100% over it.
I have another friend group who I met much later in my life, though it's already been almost 10 years. They reach out to me a lot more and organize trips and all sorts of things even though they're all spread out over the US, and I feel much closer with them than even my family.
As far as women go, I've had this attitude (not chasing/over-investing/carrying communication etc) for a long time and it's probably limited my success a lot, but it's probably for the best.