> Given that that could be used to describe quite a lot of pulp sci-fi from that era

Now that is useful context that I didn't know. Could you provide other examples?

> Writers, then as now, knew what their audience wanted.

Wasn't their audience mostly younger guys? Wouldn't their audience want younger guys getting laid?

I was thinking of the Buck Rogers novels and William Burroughs's John Carter when I wrote that but both of them turn out to be ~30. Older than the likely audience but younger than I had thought.