I think that males have sort of an instinctual way of thinking which is often reinforced in the media that persistence and commitment are "romantic" which women secretly desire, and that they often "play hard to get," etc. There are certainly many cases where this is true but probably much more commonly not. I can see how this combined with wishful thinking, general emotional confusion, lack of information, self esteem issues, etc can lead to these sort of situations.

I definitely don't think the woman owes him an answer or anything else of course, but I do think that women have a different perspective than men in general where they often have many more suitors and don't really understand the male experience that well. From the perspective of a man who has few prospects who takes every interaction as being meaningful, being abruptly blocked by someone with no explanation seems very rude and personal, but to the woman doing the blocking it might simply be the most convenient and reasonable way to deal with being approached quite often. It wasn't until I became platonic friends with women that I realized just how much more popular they are on dating sites, etc.