my experience is that if you're reasonably attractive and have decent social skills, people actually welcome real-world conversations.

Not really. It is not about how attractive you are, it is about how attractive is a woman you talk to ;)

When I wait in long line and have nothing to do, and I often strike a conversation with somebody in front of me (ofc if I have something to say, like we bought the same stuff or something unusual or in common. I dont push it). Guy or girl, I dont care. Hot or not, I dont care. I met plenty of cool friends and even some girlfriends like this.

And I will tell you, there is a very strong pattern I see in womens behavior.

If a girl is not good looking, she is super eager to talk, like almost lead the discussion and ask plenty of questions, laugh a lot. I almost feel like she cant wait me to ask her out.

But when a girl is just a little bit cute, its the opposite. She is bit reserved and I can see she thinks "this guy just wants to fuck me" or something. Or maybe I am not her type, so she doesnt even wanna talk, I dont know. Either way, so she put on bitch shield.

But why? It is tinderization of basic human interaction - most women have mentality "I refuse to speak with somebody who is not hotter than me".

They are missing on a lot I think. What if we have tons in common and I could be her swimming buddy she looks for ages? Or she could be mine art class buddy, because I always go alone to drawing classes and it sucks. Or maybe you know, we are actually really good match personality wise and if we spend a bit time together, we would start dating? There are plenty of options and its not my only intention is to fuck her on the spot.

But I guess people just became more and more superficial and its mostly because of online dating. Tinderization of society.