My usual strategy is to message anyone I'd want to go on a date with, and then forget I sent the message.

I'm actually the same way, but I think a lot of people aren't. Or even if they are, it's kind of draining to put so much energy over time into writing messages and get nothing out of it. Being politely turned down is at least an acknowledgement.

In practice, I almost never get to the point of having to explicitly turn someone down, though. Either one-sided clicks don't happen that often, or when they do, the other person gets the hint I'm not interested.