struggled to find the middle ground. In short, I'm probably not the emotionally healthiest guy to ask that question to

I love that you said this, because it shows you have some humanity and sense. RP is all about extremes and dichotomys (black and white), totally failing to realize that when youre dealing with humans, everything is a grey area.

Hypergamy and 'branch swinging' refers to cheating or leaving for someone 'better'

This is something that really pisses me off about RP, is their totally fucked up concept of "Chad", "Alpha Male", "better male" etc. Its so off base and wrong. Are there girls that exist that are "hotter" than my gf? Absolutely. Would I leave her if one of those "hotter" girls came along? Absolutely not. She is still incredibly physically attractive to me. If she gained 30 lbs like in my previous example, eehhhh. Maybe different story. I gave an example of what I THINK Id do, but its really impossible to know for sure unless I was put in that situation. Again, everything is a grey area when youre dealing with human situations. In this scenario where my gf is now chubby, would I sleep with someone who came along at the right time and the right place who was skinner and better looking? You know what? Probably I would. Im human and have my weaknesses just like anyone. But I would still stay with s/o, because the new person couldn't replace s/o. She would still be the person I love. And notice how in that situation, no one is calling AMALT. No one is coming up with ridiculous evolutionary theories saying I was just trying to spread my genes to the best looking mate. No one tells me Im hypergamous, branch swinging, or trying to "cuck" my gf. No one tells me I went back to her after cheating because Im just trying to have financial security (beta bux). Her family is wealthy and yes it could easily be characterized that way by someone who just looked at it like a numbers calculation). Finally yes of course I realize there are outliers, there are some really horrible things women have done to men who dont deserve it. And of course those are the stories RP selects, omitting the really horrible things men do to women who dont deserve it. Read the sub too long and you'll begin to think all women actually are like that, because its the only thing you read about. But Im confident in saying that the stories they select about horrible things some women have done are reflective of <1% of all women.

TLDR: 1) Humans are not dogs that can be lumped into Alpha Beta whatever categories. 2) Theres no such thing as Chad (a "better" human). 3) RP is the epitome of selective bias.