What's wrong is the PUA gurus are selling their products to frail and insecure 17-year olds who need professional help.
If you feel you need to change yourself for the better and improve your personality then there are people far better qualified for the job than some sleazy PUA sales rep.
Speaking as someone who would have cut off their little finger for one of these courses if I'd known about them at 17, WTF?
frail and insecure 17-year olds who need professional help.
Psychologists and other like personnel are as expensive or more, and if the problem you're trying to solve is "I can't get a relationship/laid" I would go for the PUA over the psychologist. The psychologist might try to help, but he wouldn't be a domain expert, and he might try to convert the client and convince them they have other, deeper problems when that is irrelevant to them.
All that said, taking a dead end bar or waiting job and/or getting horribly drunk regularly will also work for the majority of people.
In no way am I advocating a frail and insecure 17-year old going off and paying someone to tell him how to harass women in bars.[1]
What I'm taking issue with is the idea that you are somehow selling yourself out by making changes to your personality to achieve a given goal.
And really, I'm not sure that your frail 17-year old should be trudging off to any professionals[2] before he's tried hitting the gym, doing some travel and getting some hobbies that actually include a decent number of girls.
[1] After all you can do that for free, as my fine collection of restraining orders confirms.
[2] With the obvious disclaimer that if he's mentally ill he should go seek help.
If you feel you need to change yourself for the better and improve your personality then there are people far better qualified for the job than some sleazy PUA sales rep.