For sure people perpetuating the whole “manosphere” aren’t wanting to be like-liked, they want sex and power. I imagine most, if not all of them, are sociopaths.
For everyone else who isn’t a sociopath, everyone starts out wanting to be like-liked (and the sex that usually comes with that), but there are various bad turns they can take, and as you said, start to go down exactly the wrong path. I won’t pretend to understand the culture, but some of it is self sabotaging.
It’s almost a shame that our own fresh contributor representing what fetid pustules the manosphere brings to the internet will likely be gone before most gentle readers can “enjoy” it.
/s
(Good riddance. No thanks for stopping by.)