It is a real phenomenon, but it's more complex and multi-faceted than most understand.
The typical incel isn't simply looking to get laid, they want the story book romance and affection that they've seen in media or in real life via high school/college, usually by witnessing women their age fawn over the athletes and pretty boys.
Most dudes on here won't admit it -- especially "Handsome Gang" -- but looks trump "mouthpiece", especially in this current day and age where both genders have goldfish-level attention spans and men have become as equally objectified as women.
Yes, social skills ARE important in dating, but nowadays they're more akin to being the icing on cake, not the actual cake that attracts the women in the first place.
Case in point, back in high school, both me and a good friend of mine had the exact same personality template: comic book nerds, wore rock/metal band shirts all the time, both music geeks, and had the same goofy sense of humor. Therefore, we should've been equal in terms of getting girls, right?
Difference was, he was physically attractive to women in spite of his dorky personality. All throughout high school, even during the times when he was in an actual relationship, girls would always go out of their way to get his attention. On several occasions a girl would come up with some excuse to sit next to him and our other friends at lunch. Every time this happened he'd just ignore the girl while we'd continue our debate about the best Batman villains or some shyt
I even overheard a group of hoodrats mention his name once while walking through the hallway to class. Saying that he was "fine" even though he was a nerd.
He never stayed single for long, lost his viginity to a girl that was a junior when we were freshmen, has had girls fight over him, and possibly ran through most of the girls in band class.
He's genuinely a good dude, so this isn't me hating on him, I'm just bringing reality to this conversion