I have used the safety side on and off for about a year and the results were mixed.
One thing I would do differently with the safety side — set your radius tight first and widen it only if it goes quiet.
In a smaller town the safety side behaves very differently once you account for whether the nearest city is twenty minutes or two hours away.
If I had to name one factor in the safety side it would be how many people within reach were active that week.
Before you commit to the safety side, message within a day of matching rather than sitting on it.
Judging the safety side without knowing whether the nearest city is twenty minutes or two hours away is close to meaningless.
Practical tip for the safety side: turn off notifications so it does not take over your evening.
Still forming a view on dating sites, so take it lightly.