It really isn't about one versus the other. Women look for more that one trait in a man. Scientifically speaking, from a biological standpoint, women are programmed to seek out specific things in a male mate.
Three big ones women look for on an almost subconscious level:
1) Kindness and willingness to share resources, hence the wealth questions that always seems to pop up on sosuave. It's not so much about wealth as willingness or perceived willingness to share resources such as money, time, emotional sharing, you name it, they want it. You could be a billionaire, but be stingy with your resources to a woman it's huge turn off. An analogy for a man is being with a supermodel who will never give her man sex. Such a woman is useless to a man. Of note, women are also programmed to underestimate a man's willingness to provide resources, eg her detector is calibrated to be less sensitive to help find the men that really will commit. Personally, I think that's where part of their testing really comes in and the tests are less about being alpha and more about ability to provide resources.
2) Ability to protect the woman from other men, eg rape. In early times, war wasn't like it is now. War was about going to the neighboring villiage, killing all the men and taking their best women. These days, war sucks for men. Men don't get the reward they used to. Anyway, women are programmed to seek men that can protect them from situations like war and from men from their own village raping them, hence the physique question that also always seems to pop up on so suave. Women need to feel their man can protect them from other men. Muscles are useful for fending off males that may want to take advantage of a man's woman.
3) Good genes. Physique and athleticism do show off genes to a woman. However, there was a recent study where women who knew nothing about cycling were given photos of professional male cyclist and asked to pick out the most attractive men. Most of the women, just by looking at the face picked out repeated world champions. Bottom line, a man's face tells a woman much about his genes, probably more than seeing him do chest presses at the gym.
All women are programmed to seek out the above. It's a subconscious thing and it's responsible for the success of our species to date. Like it or not, it's how we all got to be here today.
All the stuff on sosuave is basically about the how-to-do, but seldom about the why. The whole alpha thing really comes down to displaying to a woman that you can protect her and your the kind of guy that obtain resources. When you analyze the mystery method, it's really about showing a woman you are attracted to her enough to provide resources, specifically your time. I think the understanding of the why is just as important as the how-to-do when dealing with women.
Source: Evolution of Desire by David Buss
Note, all of the above excludes women's childhood issues and their tendency to be in familiar childhood situations when picking their adult relationships, which is another topic entirely. But obviously, that comes into play when a women makes her choices about a man.
