"he probably would have done better just simply browsing on the site, and only directly messaging the girls he found interesting in the first place."
He'd already tried that, the article claimed. The problem is that he didn't know what was important to the women he was interested in, and so didn't know what parts of his life to mention in the OKC profile, to attract first dates from women he, as you note, might well have messaged anyway.
If he doesn't know what the women he's interested in are interested in, i'd seriously question whether he's the person the people he's looking for, are looking for.
I think a large number of essentially useless dates bears this out
He'd already tried that, the article claimed. The problem is that he didn't know what was important to the women he was interested in, and so didn't know what parts of his life to mention in the OKC profile, to attract first dates from women he, as you note, might well have messaged anyway.