Glad to hear you cut those friends out. Took me quite a while to do it myself, as I figured "we've been friends for years, I can't just end the friendship" but all I really lost was always hearing about how things won't work out, or that I should forget my dreams. I think friendship is actually something different than that.
When it comes to the attractive women, they are always at the advantage when they have an unattractive friend. If they want someone to scare off potential suitors, they are there. And they also know, that if they see a guy they are attracted to, there's no competition. Cute girl always comes out on top with an unattractive friend.
And then they use the other method, go out with all their cute friends to get the biggest group of guys interested, like you said. That's usually in a club/party bar setting.
Basically, women and men do not look at their friendships in the same way. I think with women it's much more competitive. Women don't tend to get along with each other very well, especially when men are involved.