I think a woman offering to pay for things is most often an intentional indicator of not being romantically interestedand so not becoming indebted or open to accusations of leading a man on.
Not simply to maintain equal reciprocality?
That is new to me. On the surface I’d say it’s the opposite of suggestive—it’s a one-up sort of thing that would seem to take traditional male-female romantic relations completely out of the picture.