I’ve been out of the dating world for a long long time, so take these possibilities with multiple grains of salt:
1) Ambivalence about method. Many date-seekers aren’t all that invested (or don’t think of themselves as the kind of person who would be invested) in optimizing on those dimensions. Kind of the inverse of your “free energy” theory.
2) Intentional filter for partners who prefer the un-optimized profile.
3) They’re getting “enough” matches without further effort in that part of the funnel, and are instead trying to optimize a later step in exploration of compatibility once matched.
I’ve been out of the dating world for a long long time, so take these possibilities with multiple grains of salt:
1) Ambivalence about method. Many date-seekers aren’t all that invested (or don’t think of themselves as the kind of person who would be invested) in optimizing on those dimensions. Kind of the inverse of your “free energy” theory.
2) Intentional filter for partners who prefer the un-optimized profile.
3) They’re getting “enough” matches without further effort in that part of the funnel, and are instead trying to optimize a later step in exploration of compatibility once matched.