Slightly OT, but I always wonder that people presume that men will be in full cognitive control to do something difficult (act out novel behaviors against prevailing norms) when women are “too drunk to consent”. This seems to be bad social engineering driven by ideology. On the other hand, attempts to prevent situations where rape occurs (e.g. when drunk and horny people of the opposite sex congregate) is viewed as “blaming the victim”. I believe this to be an unfortunate side-effect of feminism emerging from left-wing philosophies (edit: which support “sexual liberation”).
On your larger point, I agree. The scientific method is used to hone in on a local optimum. It is slow and incremental. In messy, complex social phenomena we are likely nowhere near a global optimum so there is room for large-scale experimentation and intuition.
PUAs do teach aggressive touch escalation, less talking more body language. Don’t ask to kiss her, kiss her. That kind of thing.
An important part of PUA teaching is getting over feelings of guilt for your sexual feelings, which alphas and guys that are confident with women don’t display.