Women seem to be naturally attuned to looking for a high-quality partner; they want to have sex (which drives them to keep looking for a man), but they're quite picky and most will prefer no sex, over sex with someone they think isn't worthy (many men are the opposite).

The old search for "dads, not cads" is _incidental_, and a useful artefact of women looking for men who treat them well. Men who treat women well, will also tend to be attentive, loving fathers, so evolution seems to think it's an effective proxy, with which to "test" men on their fitness to be fathers. If he's chronically late for a date, he'll forget to pick little Bobby up from baseball practice. If he cooks you dinner, he'll feed the kids, while you're away. Etc.

(It could even be argued that young women can be so difficult and exhausting to deal with because young children are the same way, and if you can't handle her moodiness, try to live with an infant and some toddlers. 😂 It's very possible that successful evolution has actively lead to demanding females having more-successful children.)

The conflict arises because it's an artefact. Highly-effective contraceptive practices create an environmental hurdle to pregnancy, that men now have to "break through", if they want children. Women don't just get pregnant because they had sex, nowadays; it has to be somewhat deliberate.