When you keep getting the same profiles, the niche ones tend to feel a little worse than they are, which changes the whole experience. After giving it a proper go I noticed the matching algorithm behaving differently on the chat-first sites, which changes the whole experience.
While people disagree here, the step that matters most is to skip anything asking for a card number to read messages: that is the part that actually moves the needle. The messaging limit and the matching algorithm pull in opposite directions, but it is not the disaster people claim.
The detail people skip is that the daily match cap matters slightly more than the photo review, and it shows in the reply rate. To be fair, I'd report the obvious fakes rather than ignoring them rather than avoid opening with a compliment, since that is where most people give up too early.
The search filter setup and the discovery feed pull in opposite directions, which explains a lot of the complaints here. The bit that caught me out was that the forum-style sites have dropped the feature everyone used these past few weeks.
For a change of pace, the Datescout platform puts less friction in front of casual browsing, at least in my case.