Fewer years, on balance, means less baggage, as a general principle. (Of course there are exceptions, but I am just saying this as a general principle).
Baggage is the worst: I have zero tolerance for excess negative baggage.
It's one thing to get chewed out by your galpal for something bad or thoughtless that you did. That's fair.
It's another thing entirely to get chewed out for something you casually said or did that in itself is no big deal, but somehow reminds her of some jerk from her past - the guy she thought loved her but ended up horribly mistreating her.
Dealing with my self-created crap is one thing, but dealing with some other guy's crap is more than I care to bear.
It's completely an elective decision: I know that the market of women out there is such that I don't have to bear the burden if I don't want to.
I think women should do the same and reject men with similar hangups. Life is too short to deal with baggage - men and women with a lot of baggage, children, poor outlooks, etc, should just date each other and leave the rest of us alone (to have fun).
Good philosophy for staying single.