Title sums it up.

I have an older plate, I feel she sticks around because she's lonely - not because I'm "attractive"; this is milf-game sort of stuff, we'd be observed as mum-son on the street not so much "couple"

we go out on dates and have sex and I use it to work on myself, how I should handle myself at dates etc. and she's very helpful in that regard as she knows that we can't actually be in a typical relationship but we're both just "someone to do stuff with"

I get confident, sometimes I turn her on ridiculously well, she's not that great of a liar so I know what works and what doesn’t. - but that being said sometimes I fail. I get a bit needy or not dominating enough ( she's VERY submissive and I still stuff this up ) - I think the amount of times I'm failing is adding up to overcome the initial attraction.

but I feel that she'll always "put up" with it because she doesn't want to be lonely. sex sometimes feels like a chore for her ( she lies about this too;)

I'm tempted to suggest that we don't have sex, just have dates, while I work on being attractive; confidence, technique, etc and just jerk it or try and pick up slags at the bar for immediate release.

but would the lack of sex really help anything?