I can't speak for every guy but I've had much more success in my early 30's than I did in my 20's but there is still a lit of nonsense to navigate.

I think it's just the times now but even though I didn't have much success in my early to mid 20's, most women were decent when it came to messaging back or even telling you they weren't/lost interest. Now days it seems to be the standard for women to simply ignore guys. Whenever I mention this to friends I get hit with the 'you are not entitled to any response etc' and of course when it's the guy who's ignoring the women, suddenly it's disgraceful and hurtful.

That's why I don't really bother these days but I will say that the whole 'I don't play games' mindset has worked. I know this isn't TRP but acting like you don't care or even making them contact you first has worked for me. This isn't me playing into the whole PUA thing but rather because I'm quite busy these days and dating and sex isn't all that high up on my list of priorities.