A 25 year who has accomplished these things IS MORE MASCULINE then someone that took 10 more years. Getting old doesn't make men more masculine. This is an extreme cope. Actually testosterone and physical stamina peak during the 20's. An alpha 25 year old will be that much better in ten years precisely because he is alpha.
Life is not just about external accomplishments. The wisdom of age comes from novel, varied experience and that's the most masculine quality you can have.
Also, you'd be hard pressed to find 25 year old men who is truly successful. Not talking about being rich or having a family, I mean being fully self actualized and sorted out. That's quite rare and i'd wager not even possible for a 25 year old to do unless they had an exceptionally lucky upbringing.
The data science clearly shows women find men 2-3 years difference most attractive. Read Freakonomics.
Age is relevant, few women find old men (over 10 years older) physically attractive. They say this, and more importantly the dating statistics prove it.
I get the feeling most guys here are living in the 1950's fantasy before women made more money then most men.
I would need to take a look at these studies as sociological survey based studies tend to be flawed, but even if the studies were done well, there may be other factors at play that might account for this. For instance,
attractive older men are generally more rare, most older men let themselves go, so the studies might simply using average men of all age groups, naturally younger 'average' men will be more attractive.
My point has always been, older men by default are not more attractive,
but if you have managed to take care of yourself and age gracefully you WILL be more attractive than you were when you were younger. In other words, a top tier 40 year old man will be have higher SMV than a top tier 20 year old man.