Women do a piss poor job of showing that they even like average men.

It exists within the cultural subtext of the demonization of approach (warm and cold). It exists in how they talk about men. We are oppressors, limiters of freedom, sources of threat but never objects of desire.

Compared to that gay men are incredible at showing desire. They have a plethora of terminology where they describe the various archetypes they find attractive - Hunk, bear, otter, twink etc. They by their description of each other demonstrate there is someone out there who loves their body as they are.Someone who will see them both as partners and as sexual beings,

Women by contrast seem to be mildly repulsed by men. They will put up with our sexuality for a relationship and maybe for provider abilities, emotional support and social validation(less important as the years go by with the normalization of being the cool wine aunt) , but never truly desire intimacy from us. That is reserved for the upper echelons of men who bring about a sexual reaction in them.

There is no vocal minority of women who declare their love for small to average dicks, for short men, for submissive behavior. They wont even be neutral about economic success. The will profess their love for height above 6ft, and big dicks. The average man will find that he is not desirable because he has no representation in what women find desirable. ( Lets compare that with say small titted women, there is an entire subreddit where men profess their love for small tits, and lets be real, small tits are nice and perky.)

In this situation being sceptical of any signals of interest (especially after you are 30 and established in a career) is completely reasonable and to be expected.