It makes sense to separate the question of how to lower the incidence of rape in general (that is, how to make men less likely to rape) from the question of how to lower the likelihood that you, personally, end up the victim of rape.
To me it make sense to address the first strongly (and to keep addressing it as we have been doing that for decades now, sigh), but to also equip all of us with methods to help keep ourselves safer.
It also makes sense to take a step back and ask which kinds of men rape (mostly young? more likely to to be porn consumers? misogynists? men who believe they are entitled to sex?), if there is a small number of men who are serial rapists (there is, based on what I have read, and they are responsible for a chunk of all rapes), in which circumstances rape is most likely to happen (and how often in each types).
Actual statistical data is needed on these questions, and there is some, though not enough. We can't decide which strategies would reduce rape the most or which individual defenses work best if we don't have good general information.
Predators of any kind looks for access. One of the reasons most rapists know their victims is that access is much easier for someone who knows his niece or a coworker or a neighbour etc.
It's not that those men who are likely to rape whom you know are more dangerous than the men whom you don't know; it's that they have more access. We tend to defend ourselves more against stranger dangers of all types.
When it comes to ways individual women and girls might improve their own odds of not becoming rape victims some proposed ways would limit our lives a lot, by requiring limitations of movement, say, whereas others are less likely to do so.
I do think self-defense skills are useful*, especially when they are interpreted widely so that they include being aware of the situation, reading all the psychological signals correctly, learning about dangerous areas, being aware of one's surroundings etc. They are not a panacea and do not guarantee safety, but they offer you more choices in your tool box.
*While an average untrained woman might not stand a chance against an average man (who is, in a sense, already trained by the way boys are socialised) in a fight, having self-defense skills does make the battle somewhat less unfair, especially when the attacker doesn't expect that she has them and when they include those moves which work well against a larger opponent.
I began training in self-defense after someone tried to rape me and then got hooked on various fighting sports, so I have lots of skills, but a short well-taught course can provide many of the basic information and skills, though rehearsing them is still needed.