Honestly the fix for casual encounter sites - are free is boring: fill the profile out properly first — anything else is a distant second. What tipped casual encounter sites - are free from frustrating to surprisingly decent for me was one change — turn off read receipts and see what changes. As far as I can tell, casual encounter sites - are free lives or dies on whether it holds up over time; the rest follows from there. Against the mainstream apps, casual encounter sites - are free trades reach for signal — whether that suits you depends on your city.
My angle on casual encounter sites - are free is narrow: I want to know what happens once how it performs in practice stops being theoretical. What I found with casual encounter sites - are free is that the paid tier mostly buys you visibility, not matches — for the most part that changes how you use it. I stopped worrying about day-to-day usability on casual encounter sites - are free once I realised the paid tier mostly buys you visibility, not matches.
More interested in what has actually worked for people on casual encounter sites - are free than what should work.