On PPD it's very common for women critical of age-gap relationships to bring up the anecdote(real or hypothetical) of a young 18-22 year old woman who shacks up with a much older boyfriend. You often point out that because of the dependency, the older man can strongly influence and control his younger partner.

I don't disagree, I mean without statistics we can't really say with much certainty how common that is, but it's pretty obvious to most people that the potential exists.

But here's the thing, age-gap sexual relationships aren't necessarily that serious and committed. If they're just hooking up, FWB, or dating casually, there's no potential for that sort of influence and control. The critics are cherry-picking when they bring up problems associated with more serious relationships as an argument for why age-gaps in general are bad.

I can see why people think it's a bad idea for young women in their late teens/early 20s to seriously date, cohabitate with, have kids with, or get married to a much older man. But I don't see compelling arguments against young women casually dating or sleeping with older guys.