Hey Lifeforce, a couple thoughts on why you like one way vs the other. In my humble opinion, it all has to do with how you're developing your inner game and your understanding of seduction as a whole.
You're approaching structured game with the wrong mindset and thus it doesn't work properly for you, even after "1000's" of approaches. As you stated, your view of PUA tactics is "changing yourself to get a girl" or "chasing the girl." You seem to think that tactics are "something you do, to get a girl" (supplicating). I used to think this for a long time so I definitely understand where you're coming from.
Like people have already mentioned in this thread, tactics and a seduction outline or plan are tools to help us overcome obstacles. What everyone should keep in mind is that we are awesome human beings, but we have a couple problems:
1) we don't remember our value in the presence of beautiful women
2) we have trouble naturally and non-abrasively conveying how cool we are to other people.
3) we are not practiced at smoothly and naturally moving a encounter along toward sex.
Tactics and plans merely help us WHERE AND WHEN we have problems. Some dudes have absolutely no social sense and need a lot more structured game than others at first. Other guys have a lot more social grace but need to bust out a tool here and there to help them overcome certain obstacles. Most of their game is just being naturally THEM. People run into problems with tactics when they completely suppress their personalities and just spit routines. That's an insecure inner game that relies on magic tactics for success rather than yourself.
And just because a person is active in his PU efforts, doesn't mean that he's panting after a bunch of women who don't deserve it. He's merely expanding his range of opportunities and meeting new people. He's helping weak women meet him and understand how cool he is so they can chase him. He's also checking them out to see if he really want to have sex with them. And he's lifting psychological weights. Charisma, social skill, mental stamina, improvisation, and personal power can take you much further in life than looks and physcial strength.
But obviously, you claim to be happy with your way. So what accounts for your success? Working out boosts your confidence level and improves your inner game. Your inner game shines through your actions and your whole game improves. That's awesome!
Yet, you seem too focused on "working out" or "looking good." (you talk about working out quite a bit in this thread)
It can't be simply "working out" and "improving oneself." I have a friend who hits the gym every day and is so fvcking ripped. I mean super model ripped. He dresses very well and wears mad bling. Yet, his inner game and confidence level is WAAAAAY below AFC and he is the beta of betas. Improving his looks don't help him like they do you. My natural alpha friend with a beer gut gets way more action than Beta Bulge.
You knock tactics for being "things you do to get a girl" but your frame of mind is exactly that. You're working out because "girls are visual and attracted to hot bods." Working out has given you success while PUA tactics haven't. So you're really just exchanging one tactic for another and still doing stuff so girls will like you. The problem is that your frame of mind is wrong no matter what tactic you choose.
Definitely keep working out. It makes you feel good and improves your inner game. Yet don't cling to that. Personal empowerment is about using whatever tool you need to enhance your way of being. Always frame everything you do as something that helps YOU solve a problem, not as something that will make people like you more or chase you more. Yes, people will like you more and chase you more when you use certain tools, but focusing on that is not the right frame in my experience.
My experience has been that once I realized this frame, tactics started making more sense. Seduction is coming together as whole for me. It's not about randomly throwing out certain tactics and they magically make a girl like you. It's not about rigidly following a bullet list of "things to do in a sarge." It's not about "do this specific thing and you'll be successful." I'm now understanding the theory behind it all, which is much more important. Once the theory is really realized through experience, not just read and intellectually understood, your personal flair and creativity can come shining through like it is supposed to.