That's basically his only distinguishing characteristic, and it hardly seems enough to merit Faye's obsession with him. I'm with the NYT in rolling my eyes at a character (repeatedly!) talking to a dishtowel. Rather than being different from Hollywood depictions, Faye is very much a Manic Pixie Dream Girl: someone who only exists on film rather than in real life. I thought the hair Faye found was clearly supposed to belong to the long-haired woman (waitress?) meeting with 663 later, and whom Faye holds up the hair to compare against. I don't relate to supposedly universal experiences, but When Harry Met Sally worked for me in a way this does not. She's just too exhausted to argue that much when some guy sits down and insists on talking at her. And Brigitte Lin's character doesn't seem especially lonely. If Facebook had existed, none of them would have the status of being in a relationship. I don't think of the pairs as being "couples" in the usual sense. Fincher is a big name director now, but his movies aren't just glorified ads. And it's considered a knock to compare movies to MTV because that arose for music videos, which were essentially advertisements for another product (albums).
I can definitely believe that the director wrote each bit the night or morning before he shot it: it's underwritten. Neither story is substantial enough to carry a film, and stringing them together just makes it longer. Cinephiles may be really into this movie, but I am not.