By “no need to date” I meant no need to include a dating stage of the relationship before engagement, which should have been clear since when “date” is used as a verb, it is never used to refer to a single date.
You are correct that there is no evidence regarding which method is more successful, and that anyone could speculate anything. I do not disagree with you on that point. I personally am not speculating either way, though– as you’ll see if you read my initial post on this thread, I don’t believe that dating and marriage are one-size-fits-all. I just wanted to point out that the available options are broader than your post indicated.