TL;DR:

TRP and PUA are different things, but they rely on the same principle. PUA teaches you how, TRP teaches you why.

Body:

TRP and PUA are often seen as the same by critics while seen as completely different things by the respective groups.

Now - my viewpoint here is a little bit different.

I say they are based on the same facts - but the biggest difference is in the focus of the scope. For example, let's compare it to driving a car for the purpose.

PUA for example tells you: Push the clutch, turn the ignition, put in 1st gear, slowly release the clutch while applying a little throttle. Now the car is driving.

TRP on the other hand teaches you how each of the parts work. How a gearbox changes gear ratios, how a clutch open/closes the torque transfer, why the pedal opens the throttle which now supplies more air to the motor. More air and more fuel yield more power which increases rpm....and so on

Do you see what I'm trying to tell? With the knowledge in the above PUA example, you get the car running and driving. It's easy. You just do what you get told and the car drives. But what about stopping? I didnt tell you in the PUA example how to stop the car. So that's when PUA knowledge stops. Either doing something new or if you encounter a problem that wasnt explicitly told you about.

TRP on the other hand - you know how the parts work and interact. Nobody told you the order to operate a car. You definately will have a few errors with the first tries. But the crucial thing is: You know how it works and you learn from each try. And even if you don't know something about a part, you just learn something new.

So now back to the basic thought.

Yes - PUA tells you which steps to take to get a girl into bed. But what then? Nearly every book about PUA i've seen only looks at getting girls - never on keeping them. And I'm pretty sure - also from my own experience - that PUAs will struggle after taking all the steps listed in the pick up guides.

They've learned a routine - but after that - it's back to square one with no plan on your hands.

TRP on the other hand - yes you get more details and probably wont be able to immediately see the first results - but whatever TRP teaches you builds a solid foundation for all interactions with women.

Final thought about this:

I dont't think TRP and PUA should be opposed to each other. In my view, PUA serves as a good start into TRP.

Why?

Because if you bury someone under the "most basic" TRP knowledge, you bury them under too much information. And also - someone still in the classical thought framework will oppose the theories proposes by TRP. These theories are 100% against his or her previous held believes.

But now for the common frustrated guy - you can throw him a small PUA bone. Refraining from using PUA and TRP lingo, a small advice may start the thought process leading to TRP. It doesn't need to be a huge advice, just something small.

One of the advices I prefer is based on abundance mentality:

So if you talk to a girl and she asks you to buy her a drink, just turn it around and tell her that it's a great idea that she wants to buy you a drink.

With the added warning that this will scare away many girls, but with those who stay and buy the first round - he will have a higher chance of picking her up.

Lessons learned:

PUA may be a nice and easy intro into TRP - but staying only in PUA "territory" wont make you happy. As the name implies, it helps you pick up girls and not keeping them in your life or help you getting your life on track.

Added nonsense about where I came from:

Since I spared you the boring story about me, I want to add it for some perspective. I started out as the typical beta you have described in every other FR.

A few years ago my now ex broke up with me after a long time of uncertainty. (Read: Branch-Swinging) That breakup hit me like a brick wall at 60 mph. I didnt see it coming since I had found the perfect sweet unicorn (Read: Pedestalisation). Why was she the perfect unicorn? She was willing to fuck me. (Read: missing abundance mentality)

A while after that - a friend of mine referred me to my first PUA theory: "Praise of sexism" (a non-english PUA book) The ideas listed in the book worked, but something was missing. The big plus of that book was that it also included a few TRP theories (Hamstering, Branch-Swinging, ...) which sent me down a journey deeper into the rabbit hole.

Now a few years later, I notice I became a better man. I dropped weight, am more social and make a better leader. Oh and also, I realized the errors I made before which has led me to a better love-life and all in all made me much happier.