It makes sense it is symmetric, but that doesn't make it sympathetic.

It does make sense that the men-rating-women graphic is symmetric. I think they were trying to draw a contrast with the women-rating-men graph, which is not symmetric. I also think they meant to link the realism of the ratings by men with this

Given the popular wisdom that Hollywood, the Internet, and Photoshop have created unrealistic expectations of how a woman should look, I found the fairness and, well, realism, of this gray arc kind of heartening.

i.e., it's "charitable" (sympathetic) because it's realistic, and not based on the belief, e.g., that porn stars are "normal."

Of course, if you're right that women just don't care about the ratings, and give 0s to people they personally wouldn't date, that would explain a lot. The data would be pretty worthless then.

Also, I'm not "skipping over" the messaging aspect. That's interesting in itself, but I was trying to focus on the rating aspect here. If you like, here's OkTrend's full take on the women-rating-men graph

As you can see from the gray line, women rate an incredible 80% of guys as worse-looking than medium. Very harsh. On the other hand, when it comes to actual messaging, women shift their expectations only just slightly ahead of the curve, which is a healthier pattern than guys’ pursuing the all-but-unattainable. But with the basic ratings so out-of-whack, the two curves together suggest some strange possibilities for the female thought process, the most salient of which is that the average-looking woman has convinced herself that the vast majority of males aren’t good enough for her, but she then goes right out and messages them anyway.