It (the extreme of what you're writing about) exists only on the internet.
Just turn off twitter and you'll realize those things do not exist at the scale that you think
Respectful advances in places where both people are on equal footing and there are not external pressures, have never been seen as off limits as far as I am aware.
Twitter aside, there is a general post COVID feeling of "coldness" out there in my anecdotal experience. It's kinda always been that way given me being in a big city (or at least, within driving distance of one), but even small talk seems to have diminished these days. Forget women, people in general just seem less interested to wave hello unless you're at a very specific function.
The upside of all that is that most men don't usually take it personally. Like, I can throw out a text to someone I haven't seen since college in another state and we chat like old times (you know, minus the 5 years of catching up). So it's not like they ignore people on purpose. I guess life is just busy.
I have no clue how to meet truly NEW freinds though. Meetups are so flaky and a lot of my tech/gaming circle is probably inside anyway. At best I met some closely connected friends that were ex-coworkers I never talked to.
All my male friends are either from college or work, and like you said they tend to forget you if you don’t follow up.
If anything, the blow up is massively an improvement at least we do not have to pretend it does not exists.