It's all about the social contract. Which is largely culturally dependent. Society may have never cared about young men, but (as someone else said here) the old contract with men here was build and fight wars and monogamy is enforced most will get the opportunity to raise their own family.

As I get older I realize that evolution is less about me and my DNA and more about the cultural DNA of civilization. There's individual nature, there's cultural nurture, and they combine at scale to create what we call civilization. Man may be a magnificent machine, but that pales in comparison to the complexities and intricacies of civilization as a whole.

I marvel that every ~80 years the entire planet is simply handed to and managed by a whole new group of humans. Not just that, but the transition is handled with almost seamless continuity. It boggles the mind.

What is civilization as a whole? Merely a bunch of different cultures, competing for resources to breed, and passing on different values to their offspring, and combining with other cultures to form new combinations and mutations.

I believe in survival of the fittest culture is what drives civilization. Few cultures are successful, and those that are don't stay that way forever. Turning the pages of history we see great cultures rise and fall. The best parts of our culture will be absorbed by others, some will be lost to time.

It's not a question of "will the west fall?" it's a question of "when and how will the west fall?". The times are a changin'. They've always been a changin'.

Ascribing to this worldview, I posit that the cultures that are the most fit long term are the ones that have the best/happiest productive outcome for everyone across society, and encourage/reward breeding and family building to ensure continuity.

If true, then cultures that don't value productive young men (and women!) will find themselves conquered or outbred by those that do. As someone mentioned here, Ukraine is going to stand or fall on the backs of it's young soldiers. We are watching the turning of history. edit: I'm not saying only men need to be valued, but that the cultural value of men is what is being discussed here.

The rise and fall of cultures is a good thing for civilization on the whole.

DNA doesn't care about your happiness, it just wants to make more humans. Happiness has to be pursued on your own time. It was never really about us to begin with.