I think this is a common theme of young men moving away from the home region to take a good job - that whatever social circle they had had has been obliterated, and the dystopic dating scene makes it basically impossible for normies doing such a move to be able to succeed at dating. This is especially true in STEM fields.
This is very common in Dallas and I've touched on this topic before in the "Observations on Dallas' Scene" thread. Many young men and young women move away from their home region to take a corporate job in Dallas. There's a good base of corporate jobs in Dallas that attracts recent college grads and early career (age 32 and under) working professionals. Dallas has a lot of 20s/30s transplants from other areas of the USA or even internationally who moved here for a corporate job or the overall corporate job environment in Dallas.
What's life like for these adult transplants to Dallas? I'll focus primarily on what the common outcomes are for young men and also touch on what happens for young women.
Most of the unmarried male adult transplants arrive in Dallas without a girlfriend. It is less common for an unmarried male to bring his girlfriend from the last place where he lived to Dallas. Most of the unmarried female transplants that I have had that recently arrived were females who arrived here without being in a relationship of significance.
I agree that the moves to Dallas tend to obliterate previously existing social circles. Some transplants didn't have good social circles before they moved here. Some did have reasonably good social circles where they previously lived, especially if they went to K-12 in same area and went to a regional college (if attending college) near where they did their K-12 years. While some of these people can find their way socially in Dallas, many others do not. The ones that form a new social circle in Dallas will tend to do so through their apartment complexes, co-ed sports leagues, or other interests/activities. The new social circle has potential to help them finding a new longer term relationship in Dallas. Generally speaking, social circles tend to be weaker in Dallas, which has consequences that I'll mention in a moment. The ones that do not form social circles are the ones who tend to be out at the bars more or on app-based dating platforms. The rootless nature of a lot of transplanted to Dallas adults leads to a lot of app-based dating.
When someone does swipe app dating in Dallas, it becomes noticeable that there's a general type of person who does swipe app dating here. Almost all of the swipe app daters in Dallas are transplanted adults to Dallas that obliterated whatever social circle they had back home. I have almost never interacted with a woman on a swipe app who grew up in the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) area. DFW natives tend to be able to know enough people to avoid the swipe apps, at least until they are older and their first divorce happens. Seeing a never married, childless DFW native on a swipe app is so uncommon.
In swipe app dating in Dallas, most of the mid-tier males without social circles have a poor experience. The women will also have a poor experience, but it's a different type of poor experiences. For the men, they will struggle to get laid and struggle to get longer term girlfriends. The females won't get lacking for attention. With their abundance of prospects, they will tend to have sex with whatever top tier men they want but will struggle to get commitment in a lot of cases. This is what is commonly known as riding the penis carousel. The penis carouselers in Dallas tend to be female transplants that can't put together a good social circle and are mainly reliant upon apps, social media DMs, and whatever approaches from strangers they can field. Apps and social media DMs are the more common forms of how their interactions start.
Another quick note about Dallas is that there are a lot of STEM jobs here. AT&T and Texas Instruments are based in Dallas. Many other tech firms have a presence in DFW. There's a reason why Dallas-Fort Worth has been called the Silicon Prairie.
en.wikipedia.org
In returning to transplants and social circles, the social circles tend to be weaker here and, people aren't as closed off. Stranger approaches are usually at least cordial and there isn't any hostility to outsiders, unlike some other areas of the USA. The rootless nature of a lot of transplanted to Dallas adults leads to a lot of app-based dating, which puts men in a more difficult position. The better play is to approach strangers and join in on whatever in-person events that you can attend.
The weak social circles do contribute to Dallas' pretentious reputation. Because a lot of people are meeting strangers, there are no consequences for bad behavior. When there's no attachment, women can be as superficial as they please. Dallas has also had some fashion industry influence historically (Neiman-Marcus started here as an example) and fashion can be superficial. Southern California transplants have also added to the pretentiousness and superficiality.
The best advice that I can give to transplanted adults to Dallas, Research Triangle, or any other common area for transplants is to get out and interact with people in the real world. Avoid swipe apps and sending DMs on social media. Lifting weights and having a non-creepy appearance will also help.