Game theory offers one reasonable explanation, but a better and simpler explanation might stem from the laws of supply and demand: there are more available women than men. First, there is the biological impact (while more males are born, by age 20 or so, there are slightly fewer men than women) and then there is the judicial impact: there are many, many more men in prison than women. Even if you postulate an equal number of men and women at every level of desirability, by removing a lot of men from society by installing them in the slammer, you skew the balance in favor of the (fewer) remaining men.

Except that the ones in the slammer are skewed towards the undesirable.

Of course, I'd take the tack that the entire argument (there are disproportionately fewer quality available men) is wrong instead of reasoning why it might be true. The other argument (the remaining women are disproportionately good) is equally absurd. My anecdotal real life evidence strongly suggests that there are far fewer quality specimens of either sex.

As I've heard said before, "The only consistent thing in all your failed relationships is you." People on both sides need to stop blaming circumstances and being bitter. The biggest problem with older single people? We're all jaded, nobody impresses us, everyone conforms to some negative stereotype we have, we snap to judgment. Solve that stuff instead of drawing pretty charts.