Yeah the meat of my misunderstanding is:
they’re aware of their social shortcomings and attempt to close them by exclaiming things that are only relevant to their insecurities
I mean I’m pretty aware of my shortcomings but it doesn’t lead me down to an alpha/beta philosophy.
Maybe I’m old-school but just trying to improve those (if I want to) and generally not caring what people think seems easier to me than inventing a whole alpha/beta worldview.
The point being, their shortcomings are already related to the alpha/beta mindset, they don’t create it. They may be insecure about height, lack of affection growing up, being seen as a disappointment, etc. So they defensively project an image of themselves onto others, but only they see it.