Do you ever feel...

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Well summarized.

Emphasis mine. That right there is the crux of the problem. Men & women who feel unlovable do need validation. Your situation - where you do not feel unlovable, nor the massive stress and urge to be in a relationship - as well as your response to your situation is inapplicable to a situation such as the OP's.

I agree that you don't feel you need to compete, and that you are not competing, as you've said. But you are still within a competition, and would begin to pay attention to that competition if you begin to feel insecure enough, for lack of a mate. Such is one of the premises of the thread.

Correct. But to be fair, I've been saying that not worrying about one's looks isn't a good idea, given the premise of the OP. So I don't see that I've put words in your mouth.

Which is why I believe your stance on the issue is not relevant - because your surrounding situation is inaccessible in the immediate future(within a year, for instance) for the OP and people like him, although it's an excellent long-term goal.

However, in review I see that I've made a mistake - The OP asked for others' experience on the matter, and you gave it. For whatever reason, I had read your prior post to communicate, "You should do what I'm doing here," which is not necessarily the case. To that extent, I have imagined false motive. Not quite putting words in your mouth, but close enough. So you have my apologies for misunderstanding that, and allowing myself to be provoked on false pretense.

At this point I'm kind of realizing that I've pretty close to maxed my social capacities. I likely did so in my early to mid 20's. The trouble wasn't lack of social knowhow but what my body would physically let me do (what my mind had enough ATP to do - and most of what my social butterfly friends can do is too expensive).

The way I understand it as well - people are treated in drastically different ways. Appearance is a big part of it, for women its attractiveness, for guys its 'who' you look like you should be far more than looks. Having successful friends doesn't bother me because, I realize that quite simply they aren't me, I'm not them, it has nothing to do with me coming up short as a person or them rolling past me just by making more of themselves. Financially I'm more successful at this point than a lot of my friends, so, I have to just chalk it up to 'people are different' and let it go.

I consider myself good-looking only because, when I was in high school and middle school, the most attractive girls (i.e. some cheerleaders) found me attractive. But even when they made obvious advances in my direction, I completely blew it by not responding and acting like a socially awkward geek. I'm currently 29 years old and have never had a girlfriend, which is supremely frustrating, given what I've just said. My looks may help at times, but like other people have said, girls in particular pay less attention to looks and more attention to confidence and personality. So when I do get envious of other guys, its often toward the ugly ones who get extremely hot girls because of their personality while I'm left in the cold. For this reason, sometimes I wish girls were as shallow as guys when choosing a mate. Then again, I can't deny that my awful social skills contribute significantly to my lack of a girlfriend. Part of it is probably because I don't get out much; I'm currently not working, and still working my way through college (just three classes a semester), so I don't have much opportunity to get to know anybody. Another part is I still don't return any advances made my way, even usually saying a simple 'hi.' I've pretty much caused all of this myself, dug my own grave.