The reason you aren't doing well is because your demographic isn't suited towards your strengths, point blank older women are the most sought after women on OLD and that is a statistical fact, even more so than the younger women, simply because it's not socially acceptable for older men to date younger women and younger men just chase after every woman from 18-99.
Your demographic as an older man is actually younger women, because you have access to something she cannot easily acquire while also not compromising her reputation, since many of the avenues for young women to make money are not socially acceptable.
So playing into your strength, you would approach a young woman with generosity and expose her to a lifestyle that your competitors cannot compete with... But here's the edge: Once you do, you withdraw a bit and you let her imagination work her into your favor... Expose her to it, have her be semi-reliant on it even, then take it away and let her feel on your absence. This is essentially what spinning plates is, leveraging our unavailability into attraction, the attraction being the absence of our value... Without value, you have no leverage which isn't the end of the world unless you have no desire to manifest any value at all or as we say around here, have a purpose.
And remember, less answers means less questions... On both sides, if she's not asking, it's not your duty to wonder why, we often mistake disinterest as submission and it's often our continued presence alone that creates the distinction.
Here's the other thing: You can safely be in the friend zone as an older guy because your so clearly not her friend, it isn't necessarily normal, plus you can just lean into your role as a provider to get out... What this really means is that you should be shooting every shot you can because you can safely leave irons in the fire without much maintenance where as a younger guy you gotta maintain.