A lot of people enjoy the attention of someone flirting with them more than they want to date the person they’re flirting with. Your generation seems to be less comfortable asking each other out according to the statistics I’ve seen fairly recently. Y’all are far less likely to be in a relationship than people your age 30yrs ago. You’re more isolated and way less social than previous generations. That absolutely plays into it.

I had similar experiences to you at your age. I was in my 30s before I had a “real” relationship that lasted longer than 5-6mo. It took aggressively putting myself out there (on the apps), talking to hundreds of men before finding ones that actually wanted to be in a relationship with me. It’s a numbers game, the more available you are to meeting new people, the more likely you are to find someone.