I can understand not wanting to date someone because they don't drive, if it's important to you then it's important to you, and a personal choice about who you date. Same as any reason you wouldn't date someone, unemployed, in certain jobs etc.
What I don't understand is this notion that you can't be independent without driving and that you can't go anywhere or do anything and must be reliant on other people to ferry you around at their expense. That you're not an adult, that you can't possibly plan your life around it, that you can't possibly make decisions that work for you not driving because....... You can't drive. That you are a burden, that you're some saddo who lives a half life to be ridiculed. That you miss everything in life.
As my un suggests I'm new to driving and spent a lot of years, and money (when I could) trying to pass the test. I failed more than once.
I didn't suddenly have a personality transplant and become a different person when I got handed the pass certificate. I'm exactly the same person. I have the same job, same circle of friends, and attend the same amount of things - I miss more in life because of work commitments or lack of disposable income than I ever did through not driving. I still miss them because I'm at work, or don't have enough money.
And although not driving brought a set of challenges that I needed to overcome - so does driving. There's something quite ironic about walking further between the bus stop and your place of work because you can't find anywhere to park, having to pay more than the bus fare would cost to park, and set off at pretty much the same time because you know parking is going to be murder and you'll have to walk half a mile anyway. Or driving around your estate 3 times trying to find somewhere to park so you can actually go home, when if you'd got off the bus and walked up the road you'd be in with the kettle on. But nope, it's so much more convenient to drive 🤔.
Has it improved my life? Yes, it has, but it's not all sunshine and roses and I always knew it would, but knowing that didn't make me good enough to pass the test nor have endless amounts of money trying. I gave it one last ditch attempt and passed. That was my last go, and I'd made my peace with continuing on with the way I did live because I'd arranged my life around not driving as much as I did being a single parent or having a low income and a job working shifts.
The only person me driving or not driving affected was me, I never was reliant and I'm not now, my siblings on the other hand have both driven for years, one is still living at home in their 30's with a part time job and reliant on our parents for free rent to enable them to pay for the car, and the other still has our mid 70s parents running around doing their bidding. I've always been more independent despite not driving, neither of them can cope if their cars are off the road, parents drive them around or lend cars, I just got on with it when mine has needed to go in a couple of times.
A driving licence isn't indicative of independence, you can be independent without one or dependant with one, or vice versa.