I don't know how many hours you put into it exactly -- there's a big difference between hundreds and thousands.
But there are plenty of guys who go out for 3 hours of day game sessions here, another 4 hours here, another 3 hours there, etc., before they get a lay. 15 hours of pickup per lay I would say is not unreasonable for an intermediate-tier day game seducer, and that would put you at 600 hours.
I don't count the hours and its impossible to do so, given that I've been approaching since 2009, sometimes for many hours on a daily basis, sometimes no approaches for months at a time. But the yield is super low per time investment. As I said, could be due to the location problem and other factors. And I also got jaded and tired from cold approach years ago. Basically I fundamentally find the whole "meeting women and seduction" thing boring. What I enjoy is the sex itself, and spending quality time with women I vibe well with (after we first had sex), not the meeting and seduction "dance".
The main thing is a.) she needs forward progress, b.) she sees you as a higher-value player who was just banging her then was going to move on, and c.) she now feels sucked into a relationship with a higher-value player who will almost certainly NOT progress things with her but whom she's struggling to get away from too and who, for inexplicable reasons to her, still has not moved on from her himself. This is what is really baking her noodle.
Yeah, you hit the nail on the head here. She basically said this herself to me, more than once, many months ago already. But I skirted the issue and was too timid to be completely straight with her.
The problem here is you did not solve the issue when she brought it up to you, but instead worsened the divide then let her go.
I don't know how long it's been that she's away (didn't check the timetables here or anything) but if you understand all this, and you have read the Olive Rule article and grasp that concept thoroughly, and it all clicks intuitively, then the better play is just messaging her, "Hey, when you get back we need to talk," and not going any deeper into it than that.
She brought this issue up already in May when she attempted to break up then. She also tried to softly bring it up earlier too. Before (in May) I managed to salvage it.
This last time I acknowledge I worsened the divide, but I tried not to let her go and get her to meet me before her flight home, but she refused. Basically the break up happened 2 weeks ago,, just several days before our anniversary. Following few days we exchanged a few messages back and forth. It boiled down to this, paraphrasing a bit:
Me: - "look, let's try to meet and do something nice and try another chance for us to build something special together",
Her: - "I need to think about but I dont know", and then "I am sorry I can't do it... Blah blah... I want to hang out trust me but I made up my mind"
Me: - " ok I don't want to pressurise you... I want you to feel good...So just think about it and we could see when you are back in town"
Her: "Ok

"
And then 2 days later following advice from Skills I wrote to her the card briefly explaining that I understand I made a mistake, and she acknowledged by texting "Your card was unexpected. I want to say thank you for understanding. I want you to be really good and happy and find an amazing partner who's gonna love you the way you deserve."
So I sorta tried the Olive Rule a bit via the card I wrote and also in the message earlier I did mention for her to think and see if we reset thing when she's back... But trying to get her out for our anniversary did not work, she said "she can't do it" - I mean I did reveal too much in texts but hey...
So yeah. She's been away for a week and we haven't talked. Realistically the earliest I could see her is in around a month or so, as I will be away for a bit as well...
Still think it's a good idea to get in touch soon and say "Hey, we should talk when are both back" ?