No. Women don't prefer "better". I know because I'm a woman and I know many women who doesn't care. That is something some men like you think.
The "studies" that supposedly show hypergamy are skewed. Those studies assume causality, when in practice what we see is not women preferences, but the whole dynamic that includes periods of time when women had less rights and their fathers chosed for them (it was men why prefered hypergamy) and the men who prefer a "worse".
More or less and equal makes perfect sense and it is usually what happens. Someone that has similar interest than you, similar level of studies, similar line of work, etc. And happens because people tend to date someone in the same social circle.
And the reasons many women might find a men unnatractive have many times to do with his personality, even if the man rejected prefer to think is because hypergamy. I can't count how many times I've rejected a man for not respecting boundaries or saying sexist things and that men have decided that it was because of his job, which is absurd. We usually don't explain our reasons, granted, but that doesn't mean we don't have them or that can't be perfectly explained. And most of the time, it has to do with them doing something that we explicitly said that we don't want them to do or because they were pushing for something we said we don't want.
Hell, many times, the very "show off money" is off putting for many women becuase is tacky. I'va also been there. You might not like to hear that now that women can chose instead their fathers, that dating is changing. Sure, some people would always go for hypergamy (there are also men who seek rich wives), but at the end of the day, most people date someone from their day to day life. That is, similar background, interest, hobbies, level of studies, etc. And they start earning the same. It is latter, when career and children come that wage gap shows. And there are studies of men cheating more if their wives earn more. Maybe is not women who practice hypergamy, but men who practice hypogamy. To the point that during a long time women were forbiden from study and even now some men want stay at home wives. So right there you have food for thought.
