Bullseye!
See, its not a problem if both chosson and kallah were raised under the same conditions. But by and large, the girls have a broader scope, and the boys do not. With her newfound freedom of movement and resourses (like the internet) the social gap between the two of them is only amplified.
So does the beshow work? Of course it does. But only because there is such little demanded from the boys.
Not that our circles are without our shortcomings. In our circles the girls are more accomplished from a career standpoint than the boys are in the same age range. To offset the imbalance, the 24 year old boy only feels comfortable with girls 4-5 years his junior. But thats a whole other thread.
What irks me is we have allowed a system that may have worked fine up until now, but is in need of some fine tuning. Not an overhaul, just a little tune-up.