(discussion) Give expensive but worthless gifts?

Trawling recent publications, I found the following little piece of research: Expensive but worthless gifts may help facilitate courtship (in various incarnations - for instance, in
New Scientist's "Worthless' gifts get the good girls").

Summary: Based on a mathematical simulation, researchers have shown that the strategy of females demanding gifts that are expensive for the man but has no (or preferably slightly negative) value to the woman, both men and women gain advantage. Examples of these are taking a woman to the theatre or to an expensive dinner (negative value if she does not enjoy time with the guy.) Women get to test the men's commitment, while men avoid economic exploitation.

This strategy also mirrors a number of cases found in nature. (These cases also include women cheating with "More attractive men" to get better genetic material.)

The question: Does this strategy seem to work in practice? Does men that just pick a woman and start buying her expensive but worthless gifts, often get her as a mate?

I can argue the theory either way - how is your experience?