For a MGTOW, the friend-zone wouldn't be so bad, if it wasn't so easy for them to discover that you are a MGTOW. When you're in the friend-zone, you are made into a beta male provider. You will never get sex from this woman or be seen as a potential match.

At the same time, she is less likely to make a false claim about you, or to try getting you fired from your job. The problem however, is that when you're a MGTOW, women will figure it out pretty quickly, at which point they will remove you from the friend-zone, and put you in the friend-zone (the place where they try to destroy you). MGTOW aren't seeking a woman's validation. They are not seeking sex from her, and they are also not sharing their wealth and resources with her.

It's that last part that spells doom for a lot of guys. When the woman realizes that she can no longer make you in a beta male provider/orbiter, this will drive her insane. Coming to the conclusion that you will not share your resources with her for free, or for sex, then means that not only are you not of any value to her, but you are a danger to women, because if this behavior spreads, then it spell doom for them. So as a result she will try to destroy you, who she once considered her loyal beta male follower.

Hence, the friend-zone wouldn't be so bad for a MGTOW, because we would simply use it to fly under the radar, but when the woman realizes that we are ignoring her, not sharing wealth and resources with her, and not seeking validation from her, she will go ballistic and full on t-1000 mode.