I have read and studied those kind of articles (especially the OK Cupid one). Your objections are reasonable, but my simple explanation is this: women are much more selective than men.

That's why they have long lists of requirements for a partner, they play "hard to get", and they dream about their "Prince Charming" (i.e. a "man who have it all: beauty, money, power, status").

Therefore, men and women do not see each other in the same way:

- An average woman could be fine for most men (maybe not their ideal, but they would not discard her).

- An average man is NOT fine for most women. They might settle for him if desperate - and nowadays, not even then.

In math, any "5" is equal to any other "5". Among people it's different: a woman who is a 5 will still hope to catch a 9 or 10 man; while a man who is a 5 will tend to settle, because he's aware he has low "market value". The human mind is subjective, not objective.

That's why men find 80% of women desirable, but women find just 20% of men attractive (the gist of those research). If you disagree, just walk in a crowd: you'll notice men staring at most women, but women seldom doing the same. It's a fact.