Having once been a "goody 2-shoes" nice guy, I, too, fell for the "true love"/"Someone for everyone" romance thing. Cynical ever since out of pure frustration, and want nothing to do with it ever again.
Still doesn't stop me from watching romantic comedies for the mere sake of finding ways to riff it to hell and back. My own MST3k experience; that, or I'm a masochist. Either way, I can ruin those movies as bad as I do with horror movies; purely for sport. Nobody ever wants to watch a RomCom or horror movie with me anymore.
It's worst when I actually toss in logic, legal problems within canon, and so on that these movies love getting away with. Most fun I have is starting a political equivalent-level apocalypse with everyone watching a movie when I reveal double-standards done by the female leads or toss in common decency that could have resolves a RomCom conundrum in a heartbeat and a potential happy ending (half of them with both leads being happier single).
Stuff's like tinkering a nuclear reactor with a hammer.
I hold a similar theme with friends ("Friends stick together"; fell for that one too), or anything friendship associated. I'm purely for associates, strict standards for friends, and have impossible standards for
true companionship/nakamas, TBH. I don't even bother remembering names, unless I am working with someone, then it's necessary. I guess if the first statement is to be considered, I am like this out of frustration as well, and having witnessed too many cases of unreliable friendship where my siblings' friends are concerned. I don't want the hassle. Plus, old friends since elementary school still love introducing me to new people with humiliating incidents from my past; didn't help that I learned over time that they may have been colluding with my schoolyard bully back then either (in fact, my best friend out-ranked my bully in the social ladder, meaning he could push my attacker around (he told me so himself), and nothing was done to help me at all; in fact, I worry that my bully was his attack dog, allowing my best friend to attack me by proxy, while he played the friend card in front of me; kids are evil.). Simply put, my so-called friends were such assholes, I disavowed them from friendship when adulthood rolled around, and drank the hardest alcohol to clean sweep my brain for a fresh start. Ironically, my memory sucked as a child (to retard levels; in one ear, out the other), nowadays, they're impossible to remove, even with the hardest substances I can come across. I can be drunk, and high, simultaneously, and I'll still remember where I parked, and how to get home, and how to drive under the influence in a manner able to fool even the keenest observers (hint: acting tired (like operating on 2-4 hours of sleep) does wonders; symptoms look the same), otherwise, I drive well enough to be safe, and look casual for the time frame relevant.
POST NOTE:
I don't condone drunk driving, or driving under the influence of any drugs. I took the time to practice this skill, and know how to operate well enough to get myself back safely. I don't do this often, but in case I need to, I have the skill.