You don't have to live the life that Neil Strauss did but there are plenty of useful techs that you can learn from the PUA scene and apply that them to other areas than picking up women. It's fine if you are happy with being yourself and not improving your game so you can pickup a girl that's out of your league but some guys, those especially who've been at the bottom of the social or economic tier, want more. Why would you shit on someone trying to better themselves?
I've read Strauss' first book among other articles on this topic and taken things that are very useful to use on human psychology such as with influencing people or even competitive gaming. A friend of mine who's also read the book and others took away neuro-linguistic programming techs and employs them extremely well. He's had cute GFs before but he just gets tired of them sexually and doesn't want to get married. He always has a number of MILFs on rotation who pay for his lifestyle (new clothes, meals out, etc) here in Japan while maintaining a girl who pays for his daily costs (rent, etc). That's the life he's chosen and it works for him.
