I graduated high school in 1998, and while initially pr0n was mostly jpg, by 2001 video was plentiful and easy to get. Limewire, usenet, etc. Sure porn is an ingonito window away now, but gents had no trouble finding it online for the last 25 years. And plenty of folks my age an older did most of the flirting and making asking out via AIM, ICQ, and chat rooms.
I dunno what the problem is now for that 1/3 of dudes. But maybe always 20% of dudes were always undateable. Crippling drinking problems, in prison, unhygienic weirdos, rageaholiics, mentally ill, etc. History is filled with millions upon millions of fuckups who ain't nobody's grandpa. Maybe it inching up a bit is pretty marginal changes.
In early manosphere spaces the message was for dudes to shut the fuck up, work out, get a job, and become a man. I have no idea when it became just losers validating themselves. Somewhere along the way people forgot how to become adults.