Cold approach works in Sales, which is where most of the techniques came from. Not everyone is good at Sales, so why should they be any good at cold approach in seduction?
I would compare approaching women to sales (you are essentially trying to sell yourself). How many successful companies and salespeople rely on cold calling and spam emails to sell their products?
As a person in sales, I disagree fully.
There's similarity between "cold approaching" to find romantic options and "cold calling" to sell a product or service. It's not 100% analogous but it's good enough for a comparison.
Cold calling (whether done in person or remotely) for sales was discredited as far back as the 1990s. However, many organizations were still forcing sales reps to cold call into the 2000s and 2010s. It's likely still even done today. Cold calling is a complete waste of time and a sign that the organization isn't using marketing strategies/tactics well to help position their sales reps for success.
Untargeted "cold approaching" is likely to be a waste of time, but even using the marketing principle of targeting doesn't help all that much.
In theory, going to a bar to cold approach is targeted marketing. After all, people in relationships have no need to go to bars. In practice, plenty of men go to bars and aren't able to obtain same night sex or arrange first dates. This is supposedly selling where the market has been qualified and it is a targeted effort.
If a man wants to do approaches at grocery stores, it is best if he choosing to do approaches at grocery stores in areas of his city where unmarried people tend to live. Even by doing this, it won't improve outcomes too much. There will be a lot of failed approaches.
If a man wants to do approaches in a mall, it is best to choose to do approaches in stores where unmarried women tend to shop. These would be stores similar to Forever 21, Urban Outfitters, Lululemon, H&M, Zara. These would be better options as compared to larger department store anchor type tenants like Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Macy's, or Dillard's, which tend to cater more towards married women who are also 30+.
In Dallas, a common outdoor approach place is the Katy Trail (see 14:35 - 22:17) in the video below. The Katy Trail is an outdoor walking path near Downtown/Uptown Dallas. The Katy Trail is immediately adjacent to areas where a lot of unmarried people live in Dallas. One would tend to see a lot of 20s/30s unmarried people on the Katy Trail. Even with that targeting, doing approaches on the Katy Trail can be quite inefficient.
@Jesse Pinkman was doing a lot of his pickups in Brickell, a Miami neighborhood where there is a lot of foot traffic, nightlife venues, and a high concentration of unmarried people. That was somewhat targeted and still inefficient.
@nicksaiz65 does approaches in bars in Atlanta and Nashville. He's had 30+ approach nights. The fact that
@nicksaiz65 is doing his approaches at bars shows some amount of awareness of targeted marketing.