Hi mate.
There is a misunderstanding of the premise of the thread. Without doubt, every man should always self improve.
My point is that for most modern and phone-addicted women, no man (even their best choice out of hundreds) is the prize. Since she can always get a new, better one from her social media and OLD backlog.
What is the solution to this? A step in the right direction is to find a woman who keeps said usage to a minimum (there are some here and there, but still very hard to find).
Depends how you look at things
I am for example 33, ended up in a date with a 34 year old woman ( set by mutual friends, as they thought that we will match )
At 34 she is a 7, 10 years prior she was a 10. Really beautiful girl in her prime
Now, she pushed topics with children and stuff like that from the first date and was telling me a cringe story about freezing her eggs as she does not feel that she can secure a solid enough guy but still wants a child or more
When I saw her frame that was pushing I told her nicely that I am not interested in these type of arrangements as she will push for children and stuff like that extremely soon ( couple of months at best ) . She was disappointed but understood
Really cool girl overall
In terms of who is the prize it depends on the smv they have. A beautiful mid 20s girl is the prize over even the highest smv dudes ( as a general rule )
As she ages, high smv dudes are more in demand ( for her age ) . Basically the oned she wants but as a general rule they will not want to commit as for sure they can get better deal elsewhere . Like from mid to late 20s girls ( is achieve able )
Now the 30s woman has 2 options. Either she settles for Lower smv guys ( but still top 20-30%), either she will not have children. Most cases she will settle with some guy with a decent smv that most likely will be par with hers or maybe slightly higher
Same thing with uglier women, they will settle with guys on her par in terms of smv or slightly higher
Basically, women will always have a match with guys at her level or slightly higher while guys not really ( unless they wait for women to get old and start a family and all the drama that comes with her having to settle instead of getting who she wants )
Taking all of this into consideration, women are the prize because they are also the winners of the dating game at any point of her life
Guys in order to be winners have to focus on themselves mainly and also be lucky in order to get something at their level or above ( especially with young women ) . There is no other way for the guy
At the end of the day it is a matter of supply and demand. It is nothing personal, it is just business