Caveats:

  1. I don't see many men in the friendzone doing a ton of shit for women that they wouldn't do for other friends, so to say these women are using these guys for gifts and favors is usually false.

  2. Moreover, since the friendzone meme has taken off a lot of very young guys use it to describe every female acquaintance who doesn't want to bang them, not persistent feelings of unrequited love for somebody close to them.

With this is mind, most women are acutely aware of men's feelings of unrequited love. Maybe this is unexpected the first couple of times in middle school, but most learn very early. For the same reason I generally accept the accuracy womens' assessment of men as "creepy", I also think the vast majority are fully capable of telling when they are around a man who has particular romantic interest in them.

Women often like the feeling of being adored by these men. I have seen this with my own eyes. They will talk about to me about their orbiter as often as they would a crush. It's almost like a "contempt crush".

I see their mannerisms change around these men as if they liked them, in order to perpetuate these feelings. In many cases, the performance is even more extreme, since they never intend to forge an authentic relationship with these guys. The performance either tends to be manic pixie or pollyanna.

I have heard these women outright say these guys are crushing on them hard, roll their eyes when they receive texts, show me these texts, text back, laugh, etc.

And sure, maybe I just hang out with a particular group of shitty people, but I'm social enough that I've moved through enough circles and have seen this plenty of times. Some of these women are volunteer types who wouldn't otherwise hurt a fly.

Edit: My view has been changed. Enough women actually believe their own bullshit