Male and female attraction are fundamentally different - men are very visual and women are very emotional when it comes to attraction, meaning that for a woman to attract a man, she just has to look good while the man has to make her feel something - that’s also why women tend to have very high standards in terms of looks alone (but also why they’re more lax if you’re able to do things outside of looks) - since women are emotional with their form of attraction (even if it is a ONS - doesn’t mean she wants to date you btw, just means that you made her feel something at the moment), things like context, vibes, what you say/do end up mattering way more - which is why a 6, for example, who’s funny, charismatic, stylish, fun, etc tends to be at least just as successful as an 8.5 who is boring.

Here is the best example to illustrate this - a picture of a woman in her underwear in a dimly lit messy room with a dirty mirror is still gonna be hot to a lot of men, make it a shirtless guy (who has a good body) with the same circumstances, the woman will wonder why his mirror is dirty, why they room is a mess, why the lighting is so dim and why he’s just standing there in front of a mirror doing nothing. Now, add an emotional stimuli - if he’s a stranger, let’s say he’s an athlete or DJ or whatever, she can add context to it and her emotions begin playing a role, or say, if she dude is average but he’s been talking to this girl for weeks and they’re into each other, the picture now becomes about what they might do together, for example.

Extend this to dating apps, which are primarily focused on photos - since men are visually stimulated, that’s more than enough for them to decide if she’s attractive (and at the other end, why gay men get so much attention in there), but since women are primarily emotionally attracted, photos alone do next to nothing unless a person is exceptionally hot (which so why lesbians also struggle on apps) - flat out, women need that human element and emotional stimuli to seek out a partner, and modern dating in itself in antithetical to that fundamental need.