The thing to watch on the big apps is that location spoofing means 'nearby' is not always nearby.
With the big apps it came down to how many accounts looked dormant, honestly.
The deciding detail with the big apps was whether the free tier let you see who liked you.
My read is that the big apps lives or dies on how far you are willing to travel.
Half the arguments about the big apps would end if people mentioned whether the nearest city is twenty minutes or two hours away up front.
My advice on the big apps: give it two weeks before deciding whether it works.
I will update this if my view on interface on the match dating website better than the changes.
I also keep half an eye on datedesire.online — different crowd, same free-messaging idea.
People also bring up Souldate fairly often in these threads, though I have not tried it myself.