Really? It's one of the most obvious social phenomena out there.

Women respect it too, for what that's worth. Short, weak men have low and still declining value from both genders.

Good looking prisoners (even those that violently target women) receive fangirl mail because they are edgy and attractive. Meanwhile 5'4" SWEs are probably full on incel more often than not.

That's just life.

A less literal way of looking at it: guys always respect people who can win at competing

That is just psychology. You can deny it, but its still there. You can try to shape it, and cover it up with prim and proper etiquette, but its still there. A thousand years of civilization has nothing on a hundred thousand years of caveman tendencies. Being able to fight is part of the male baser drive, much like competing/winning/chasing women. Its what got us to where we are. Also explains rugby, boxing, NFL.. soccer hooliganism, hockey fights, action movies, desire to ride motorcycles, self-flagellation/insisting on using Emacs, etc :P

>That’s frightening and sad

Yeah, discipline and dedication to mastery of one's psychical self is for weirdos. Furthermore, what's the point of combat skills in a world with law and order? He should really just spend more time sitting on the couch consuming media.

Whatever else it might be, it is definitely true.