I promise there is probably a girl that had already found you attractive, but you weren't interested as she wasn't up to your standards.
I don't consider myself an attractive person, was made fun of pretty regularly growing up - weight, teeth, minority, etc. A lot of it got to me in teenage years, confidence was shot. Vowed to change in college and did glow up slightly (fixed teeth but I prob need jaw surgery with the overbite, worked out, wore better clothes, etc). But still didn't really pull anyone like some of my friends would. I feel you OP, I felt just as hopeless and I do think sexual fulfillment is pretty necessary for a man to put focus on other things that matter, sexual fulfillment will be on the back of your mind the entire time if you don't regularly get it.
But I don't know what happened - as I entered my mid/late 20s things changed. Yeah I'm still not top tier and getting all the quality matches (the pareto principle, 80% of women want to be with top 20% guys), but now I do regularly get matches and getting lucky more often whenever I go out. A man's brain fully develops by the age of 26. At that age, the best way I can describe is that I "cared" less. That's just more attractive for a women and of course being in later 20s a lot of women start thinking about the biological clock so they open up their pool more. With that mindset shift, even younger women will find you attractive (I actually get more of these than I do women my same age).
You need to find something and emphasize something unique about you. Short men can be smart/talented, make a lot of money, have an interesting hobby, good fashion, any of these type of things to make you stick out. Maybe you tell funny jokes, just good stories in general, have good travel experience.