People Like Us

Most girls are very insecure, pretty girls are extremely insecure this is because being pretty takes a lot of work that is basically 24/7 365, they do the things one must do to be pretty in hopes that it will help soothe the insecurity. problem is insecurity is a deeper problem and completely unrelated to their prettiness so they never feel pretty enough because they never feel secure.

This is the same thing at the root of an eating disorder and it can happen to dudes too as anxiety disorders aren't gender specific. People who feel anxious find a thing to soothe themselves with and then wreck the rest of their life by focusing on soothing behaviors to the detriment of other things all the time. We call these people successful when what soothes them is money, fame, and material success.
anybody driven is a person with a thirsty hole whistling in their soul that can't be slaked.

The compliment conversation isn't mindless. It's a part of soothing your own insecurities by opening up to your friends, friend says it's not so bad and then opens up their own insecurities to you. This deepens the friendship. Typically when guys finds themselves in this loop they react badly because they don't know the pattern and aren't accustomed to picking on themselves internally so they don't have anything they hate about their body to share. So the conversation becomes lopsided because you're providing validation without showing your vulnerabilities.

Anything that people do over and over isn't stupid, there is always an internal logic at work to any human system.