I don't think what you're seeing online is indicative of anything. There are a lot of miserable, unhappy people out there who have nothing better to do then spread their misery. If you go by that, there are a lot of other things you should avoid doing because "people online think it's pathetic". It's like if you only watch the news and never step outside you'll think that you're going to get shot as soon as you leave your house. Fortunately, that's not the case.
Personally, honesty is very important for me, so I'm not going to hide it. I do understand there is a "risk" that I tell someone and they won't be interested in me anymore. I'm ok with that. If someone feels that way - I rather know it then don't, and we can go our separate ways. I believe the right person will be ok with it, and if you think literally every woman on earth won't - then I do think you're very delusional.
I'm only beginning my distraction phase right now, and not in a relationship, so I can't comment on relationship specific scenarios. What I can say is that I've told a bunch of women, both friends who know me for a long time, and also a few women I met post surgery, and as I said the reactions were very supportive.
Just to be clear - I don't think there is anything I can say that will change your mind. That's fine, so I'm not even trying to do that. I just want to establish that your entire view on the topic is completely hypothetical, "backed" by online comments only, which I think are pretty much meaningless.
You haven't even done LL yet so you don't have either any experience about how a woman that you see romantically would react if you told her what you did.
Do LL first and then try it and come back here to write us your experience. But if this woman suddenly disappear or lose interest for you because subconciously she would see you as weak or with low self esteem then you'll remember my words. And of course not all women would go away after they learn about LL but for sure many of them will and you won't gain anything from the other ones for your honesty. In the best case they would be just neutral. So you may lose a lot and in the best scenario you won't win anything. So I don't really see even 1 reason to speak openly about LL which is the most extreme cosmetic surgery and most people don't even know it exist.
After all if a woman is ok with short heights she would accept a man even before LL. But women that give much weight on someone's height will most of the times see an LLer as a creep.
If you really like only women who don't give a s**t about height then why you do LL after all? Thats a contradiction.
Women who care about height won't like you if they learn that you did LL. Women who don't care about height would have even liked.you even before LL but many of them won't like you after LL because they would think that you were way too insecure to do something so extreme and although some women don't care about height, almost all of them care about insecurities of a man.
I am not saying that this is right of course, I am saying that it is the harsh reality. And don't tell me again about how I know it, after all I surely know some things more after 12 years after LL and as a generally experienced man about the life of an LLer and about many women's way of thinking compared to someone that hasn't even done it yet.
In a few words, not all but most of women wouldn't be ok to have a serious relationship with an LLer for thinking that he is insecure and/or fear of having short kids (which is plain stupid because many short men have tall kids and the opposite). Both these reasons shouldn't have existed because society and especially women make short men have a harsh time and not some inner or general insecurity and the second for the reason I mentioned.
But they exist and thats the truth. And for me the best way to continue your life after LL without any social stigma is to keep it completely confidential as you have nothing to lose. You may do otherwise of course butnyou will take the risk. Its your choice.