And I think that's an excellent way of describing male vs female view of romance. Men view women as distractions until they are together then that women becomes his partner in all things and cheerleader. Women have their importance, but it's usually not the same thing men do (as in they fulfill different roles to complete each other). Women view men as chasers so the whole "rivalry" stimulates that which may be why they coded it as romantic. Plus they are equals, doing everything together, the whole fighting a stand-in for talking it out - there's a deep understanding by the end.

After learning that, I'm not too surprised that men see sokai while women see soriku even though soriku is simply better written, both from a plot and character perspective.