People don't respond to niceness, people respond to value and that is the main thing of life.
Many people will not tell you about life. You think by just being nice that people will always want to be around you but that is the force. You must learn how to be valuable and after you are valuable you must also learn how to demand value from others.
That is the main purpose of life. You must know that you are valuable and also you must be ready to demand value from others. If not, you cannot get value.
Knowing your worth is the most important thing here.
You don't think you can buy your way into niceness. No one really cares about you unless you are valuable and also even after you are valuable. You need to know your worth first before others can give you what you deserve.
That is why you must put in your work to become valuable and after becoming valuable you must learn how to demand value. If not, you cannot get value. Other people might demand value from you and you might just give in to them freely without getting yours.
So that is how life has always been and you must learn how to adapt to it if you want to ski through life.