We should be able to attract someone decent without having to pay them...but dating and marriage involves money anyway so what can I say.
There's a difference between attracting someone and getting to have sex with them without the promise of long term commitment. After a certain age, the strong majority of decent looking single women are looking for commitment. So when you are only able to attract women that you would not consider ideal, you're placed in a conundrum.
You can settle for that 6.5-7 and risk never being truly satisfied, you can lie to a chick and imply that you are looking for something serious when you're not, you can go for obese/ugly chicks for easy no strings attached sex, or you can trick bread for EXACTLY what you want.
For a guy in the upper 5% of income this decision can be a no brainer.