I don't find flirting to be fun. I completely disagree about it being "built in" to our species. I feel that the phrase "up your game" as a strong insult in this context: I don't believe dating should be gamed; I also believe that those who do game dating are among the worst people I've met. That doesn't mean I live an algorithmic life.

Looks pretty algorithmic to me:

  #include "env.hpp"
  #define FLIRTING "not fun"
  #if __has_feature(flirting)
  #error Invalid built-in environment
  #endif

  int main()
  {

   const char insult[] = "up your game";
   Person p;

   if (has_gamed(p) && FLIRTING) {
      p.set_worst();
      throw insult;
   }
  }

> I don't believe dating should be gamed

I agree, which is why I dislike dating apps. It seems like the dominant practice is for men to "right swipe" or message every woman (regardless of whether they are actually attracted to them or not) then decide whether they're actually interested once they get a match/response.

This results in women getting lots of generic messages from guys who are not actually interested in them. It's really a crappy experience for both genders. However, it seems to be the local optima that modern dating apps converge on.

Also: if you don't hit on a person, then still hundreds of people will do so on a given day. If all polite people stopped hitting on other people then at some point some people will ask themselves: why do only the uninteresting people hit on me?

And the answer is: because the really interesting people play a hard catch and hitting up shopping groceries is not playing hard enough. The really interesting people will like being hit on say, throughout a year on a dance or yoga class though, subtly and slowly.