"Is it really a problem of the male figures not looking good enough though?"

In my opinion, yes, of course, because all you need to ask yourself is whether you would buy anything you don't like the look of.  Why would a person buy something for their own use if they don't like the look of it?

If there are two male figures competing in the marketplace for your cash, you're going to go with the one you like the look of the most.  For the most part, hetrosexual women are the key to understanding why the male figures aren't popular.  Gay and bisexual men would also be a good source of information becuase they all have one thing in common; they are all drawn to men for a reason.

What is it that draws them?

If you can capture what draws them, then you capture what is lacking in the current figures.  It's like there's no big secret what draws men to women and their beutiful "assets", but the other way around seems sort of secret in comparison.

I don't know what attracts women to men because I'm not attracted to men, but hertrosexual women, and gay or bisexual men are the ones with the key to this.  For that reason I'd be a total failure at creating a male figure for the market place.

GND is a woman created from the mind of a man (so by default it has a chance of hitting the right note with men).  If there was an equivalent of the GND for a male figure, what would it have to have so that you absolutely could not resist buying it? 

That's the sort of stuff that needs getting at and incorporating into the male meshes.  If they're not enticing enough then they're not going to be popular no matter how good they are.  You could hire the worlds most talented modeler to create a male mesh for you, but if it's lacking what all the others are obviously lacking, it will still fail.