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Nope. If someone doesn’t reciprocate that’s an indication of their level of interest. This is true for friendships and romance. If the other party is always a passive recipient of attention, they aren’t interested in the relationship. It’s pointless to invest one’s time and emotions into such a relationship.

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I agree. We could use a different terminology to make a much better sense out of it. Perhaps the word "give" and "take".

If I am the person giving and the other person is just the one that takes, without giving back anything, then nope, I am leaving that relationship for reasons that should be obvious. Another term to call the "takers" would be "leech" or "parasite". It does not sound good now, does it?

You're right, it's definitely one data point.

If you look at your algorithm's ROC: you really want to avoid false negatives ("nope, not a real friend" when they actually could be).

Whereas a false positive ("yep, could be a real friend" and they turn out not to be) is something you will notice & correct eventually.

To be honest, I actually give them the benefit of doubt at first, because what you said does have merit.

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