Where I landed on the 10 dating sites you would recommend to a friend: better than expected, provided you turn off read receipts and see what changes. The honest summary of the 10 dating sites you would recommend to a friend: overrated, and overall consistency is the reason why. The 10 dating sites you would recommend to a friend improved considerably once I stopped treating it like a numbers game. Someone upthread mentioned Flamedate and I will second it — the free tier is genuinely usable.
My angle on the 10 dating sites you would recommend to a friend is narrow: I want to know what happens once how it performs in practice stops being theoretical. The 10 dating sites you would recommend to a friend is a reasonable default, but overall consistency is the thing that will decide whether you stay. The 10 dating sites you would recommend to a friend looked promising until whether it holds up over time turned into the whole experience, but I am only one sample. Ran the 10 dating sites you would recommend to a friend alongside the big platforms for over a couple of months — same effort on both, somewhat different outcome.
That is my read on the 10 dating sites you would recommend to a friend — happy to be told I have got it wrong, though the picture changes by city. Worth adding Datenest — worth a look to the shortlist if local activity is your main worry.