it doesn't do a good job of encouraging friendliness between romantic/sexual partners.
Compared with... relationship advice for women? (For example: don't call him and rarely return his calls; stop dating him if he doesn't buy you a romantic gift for your birthday or valentine's day; don't see him more than once or twice a week). How much of the PUA criticism -- that it helps narcissist people develop their sense of grandiosity and become emotional vampires -- applies to that, too? Perhaps the narcissism is more socially acceptable for women, because... uhm... yay, women! ?
Could we agree on a gender-neutral version that literature about "success" in relationships typically does not do a good job of encouraging friendliness between romantic/sexual partners? (And of course, there are always a few exceptions.)
(Or perhaps even more generally that literature about maximizing X does not do a good job at maximizing Y?)
That's a reasonable question. However, I have no idea to what extent women take The Rules seriously, while there's a lot of evidence that some fraction of the men here take PUA very seriously.
If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.