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Struggled past tense; current 5RM is 237. Nothing to brag about but considering it was 155ish a year ago I'd say it's an accomplishment from an untrained almost 40 yo.
Body weight exercises will not increase your bench unless one is completely untrained at which point any strength training will yield results no matter the load or rep scheme. If one fails at bench at 5x5 then 3x5 or 5x3 or even 3x3 would be a reasonable next step vs push ups.
Still nowhere near good enough where you can lecture others on what they should do, or even worse, tell people to ignore someone else's advice.
Have you considered that one of the reasons you have struggled so much to increase your bench press is because you're taking your own poor advice, in the misguided belief that it works? When you hit a wall with a weight in 5x5, you deload down the next level. They advise 10%, but that can be very little or too much, depending on how light or heavy you are lifting. If you can['t hit all 5 sets of 5, go down 5 lbs (or 10 lbs) to the last weight you can do 5x5, and continue to dominate that weight. Your goal then is to get more reps with each set, going for 5 sets of 7-8 reps. If you can do 7 reps of one weight, you can do 5 reps of the same exercise with 10 more pounds on the bar.
Reality is that if you get to the point where you have hit your max with an exercise, you are no longer a beginner, and it can be time to move to a more advanced program. You want to increase your bench, try pyramids, not going up by 1 lb every workout.
When we're dealing with someone who struggles to bench even 65 pounds, we're dealing with someone who is basically untrained, and any work she can do to increase her upper body strength, including body weight exercises, will help.