I don't know where you are getting your information from. I've talked to plenty of women. Heck, I am on of those. And I've talked to folks that aren't women, too.
It isn't obvious. I've personally never considered height as a qualifier. I've known folks that prefer someone taller than themselves but they wouldn't turn down a shorter man. The preference isn't going to make someone pass, but more akin to preferring dark hair over light hair. You see, preferences don't always add up to action and most folks I've known wouldn't pass on someone because of height.
But if you are only using information from dating apps, your information is going to be seriously skewed for everyone. I might not always care about height, but if you are giving me a list of attributes and I'm looking for casual sex - I'm probably going to choose depending on my whims at the time. Height can make some positions better or worse, after all.
It is also possible that men think height is more important because they think height is important, much like overly muscled comic characters are overly muscled to appeal to men.
I think you forgot to link the data that makes this obvious?
And remember the point I think is nonsense is specifically, “women overwhelmingly prefer men over 6’”, not that height is the biggest determining factor for attractiveness in men.
Is this actually true?
> if you are short, you are very likely to die alone
This also seems like nonsense.