Or is it me that is not up to the standards of a 9+?
I suspect that's the case. The 9+ women have incredible possibilities in terms of quality of men and they are used to higher standards. It's common occurrence that a guy is popular among 7s, but gets little or no interest from the 9+. (With 8/10 it's less clear, more mixed)
You should be happy that any 9+ women stared at you - that means you're more attractive than majority of men. The 9+ do not stare at average guys.
What is your experience at this?
I get a lot of attracted stares from different groups of women, including 9+. I've noticed it's random and follows no pattern in my case - a 5/10 can ignore me, while a 9+ can give me a "salivating" look.
I've noticed that most of my friends and most other men get absolutely no interest from 9+ women - zero, absolutely none. One has to be above average in one way or another to get interest from 9+ women.
I'm good looking (let's say 7/10), but I'm nowhere near being really attractive to 9+ just because of my looks. Fortunately, I have a vibe which has excellent effect on women. I'm extremely sexual and I also have "dark", predatory urges towards BDSM, dominating, humiliating the woman, making her my slave, my property, etc.

At the same time, I'm also a warm, nice, empathetic person. That's the reason for my user name "Charming Psychopath".

This vibe works wonders for me and I'm attractive to women far more than my physical 7/10 attractiveness would indicate.
BTW I don't necessarily recommend this vibe, as I've seen my friends fail at trying to copy it. Probably the key factor here is that in my case, this vibe is authentic. I was a little bit of psycho already in kindergarten (yes, really).
Reading the thread, I've noticed big similarity between my experiences and what was written by
@Will_V :
My experience is that the hottest girls stare most when (a) they cannot put me in a clear category and b) I have a very strong vibe.
1. I definitively have very strong vibe.
2. I think I also have the "cannot put me in a clear category", because my vibe projects both intense sexuality/"dark" urges and being warm, nice, empathetic, etc.