I was doing the bulk of my dating in the 1980s, before hook-up culture was really a thing. Sure, there was some alcohol-fueled getting together that often didn't go beyond that, but in general, both men and women were still part of a paradigm that involved finding someone to date. The ethos of modern hooking up which affirmatively scorns the idea of having any sort of feelings for the other person is just gross, IMO. The belief that the only two possible choices are using somebody like a sex toy or falling deeply in love is just flat out wrong. The "relationship escalator" that doesn't let things just be what they are, and instead insists that anything other than purely transactional sex must always "progress" to the next stage is a problem.

Wider society needs to take a page from consensual non-monogamy and realize that casual, yet caring sex is a possibility, but a lot of younger people (who've grown up on phones) seem to have stunted social skills, so I'm not overly optimistic.