Already in college I witnessed my girl friends - that is women I was friends with - crushing over older men, not rich men, but bartenders, teachers, artists, hairdressers and a scuba-diving instructor. I don't know if it has anything to do with "daddy issues" as their "hot older guy" was rarely a powerful CEO, more often than not it were silver pretty boys who looked like they were left on the sun for too long. I've seen too many good looking 40 year old old losers having girls fawn over them to believe it's about money or status.

When a young woman with a thing for "older guys" sees a attractive mature man she sees a unicorn in the wild, the gracefully aging stallion whose appearance a indicates long term health and superb grooming habits that produces a effect of him appearing more attractive than a peer who is a fat-slob, despite being technically in his "prime". The same goes with some men who have a preference for milfs, the men fetishizing mature women are attracted to the mommy aesthetic itself, that is, women who had passed "the wall", birthed children, but retained immense sexual appeal.