While I agree with most of what you say, there's a flip side to the "friend zone" box, and that comes back to guys not knowing when to stop pressuring a woman for sex if she's not interested... for a lot of guys who haven't been taught better, they have the idea that if a woman gives them the SLIGHTEST hope then one day they might sleep together & he directs a lot of effort towards that, often to the point the woman is uncomfortable being friends. By putting the guy firmly in the "friends" box he gets the message there will never EVER be sex and then they CAN be friends. I haven't had coffee yet, so I hope this makes sense. :)

It's another area (like "don't rape" where education needs to be different & start much earlier. Maybe if we could eliminate some of the MM and teach people better/healthier ways to relate there wouldn't be a need (or even a perceived need) for such knee-jerk categorizing.