>>257711 (OP)
Yes. Social and cultural factors can enormously change the ratio of girls that are wonderful to girls that are a drain and a pain. But both then and now, the rule held firm: If you want to find a quality woman, you need to be a quality man. And that requires getting your shit together, having a good, stable job and income, being in decent physical shape, having decent wits, having a good attitude, having a good ability to keep your head clear and function well while handling stress and hardship, having strength of character, being reliable, being considerate, and having decent (doesn't need to be amazing) grooming.
The real pain is that a lot of girls are good at pretending they are quality women but once you're married they reveal that that was just them on their best behavior and it's all downhill from there. This shit is a major factor in why a lot of men don't like to get married: the lack of confidence in a "happily ever after" even if everything was sunshine and roses up to that point.
If you don't want to end up like that you need to get better at reading people and noticing when they are putting up pretenses, hiding how they really feel, bad at conflict management (especially if they are just avoidant and would rather not talk about what bothers them than try to solve it - this will 100% result in passive-aggressive bullshit, manipulative/toxic games, and/or emotional explosions down the line), or are low-key not respecting your boundaries/needs/preferences in a relationship (even if she's nice and makes you happy or even just exercising small but constant changes, this is a big sign that shit will turn south later).
And also, always sign a rock-solid prenuptial agreement when getting married. Do not include expiration clauses (when the expiration date comes around this will stress your marriage in difficult ways) or cheating clauses (even if there was absolutely zero cheating, you will have to strenuously defend against enormous bs allegations of this shit and crap like emotional cheating as a hail mary attempt at overcoming the prenup in divorce court) and make sure to engage in full asset disclosure that you can prove happened (ie. record that shit) when doing the prenup (or else courts will invalidate a prenup on the basis that people have to know exactly what they are getting into for a prenup to be valid). If a girl refuses to sign a prenup, that's a red flag.