[kragen]

He claims, "The first thing you must understand is that dating markets are ruthlessly efficient at matching people of equivalent [attractiveness]. (...) dating apps brought gay dating norms to straights." If the first claim is true, you'd expect unattractive het men just get matched with het women who just aren't as attractive, rather than to get matched much less. So they aren't in competition with attractive het men in the same way they might be otherwise.

The article does make this contradictory claim, though, in accordance with your own: "The relationship between attractiveness and results on the apps is a power law. If you improve your appeal by 5%, you're not going to increase your matches by 5%, you will double them. The people far above you are doing unimaginably well."

(I also take issue with the assertion that height is the most important determinant of sexual attractiveness for men and boys. Being a 1.8-meter-tall 13-year-old was definitely much worse for my attractiveness than being 1.5 meters tall was for twentysomething men I met later. And there are a lot of other considerations like "personality", which includes not just the "vulnerability" mentioned here but also being able to smoothly follow social norms when you want to, a big disadvantage for autists like the OP.)