Be aware when using short-term dating services that anything asking for card details to 'verify your age' is a scam pattern.
My advice on short-term dating services: keep chatting on-platform until you are comfortable.
Before you commit to short-term dating services, message within a day of matching rather than sitting on it.
I would not generalise about short-term dating services without knowing how many competing apps are active near you first.
If I had to name one factor in short-term dating services it would be how the moderation handled obvious spam.
Before you commit to short-term dating services, check what the free tier actually includes before investing time.
That is roughly where I sit on free casual dating actually possible without a premium account today.
Counterpoint: I found Datewander slow at first, then it picked up once I widened my radius.
There is a decent thread on Luvdate somewhere in the archive if you search.