>And in cities, more pubs, clubs, general social events where you can find people whose actual interests you share.In theory yes, in practice, not so much. Just because you're surrounded by people doesn't mean people don't stay atomized. It doesn't mean everyone is open to you or likes the same things. If your interests are rather niche and don't live in a large metro area with million of people then you might be shit out of luck if you hope to meet your partner via your niche interests, so dating apps it is. For me, none of my partners shared the same interests, so if I relied on my hobbies for dating I would have stayed single forever.
>So the focus should be on that, then. As in, not a dating app.
Unfortunately, datings apps are the only easy way to meet someone is some cities at certain age groups. There's people who just don't like, or don't have the money or the patients, to go out to events, hoping to meet someone, as that's a waste of time and money if your goal is just romantic dating and not speeding two hours to listen to a band you don't like and paying 7 Euros for a mediocre beer. They just want a sure date in the near future to settle down and have a family in the near future.
If you're single in your thirties, and you move to a new city for work, you don't have the time to first build a social network from scratch before you can meet a partner as that takes years or even decades. If you're optimizing for starting a family ASAP due to your biological clock, then you need to optimize for dating people in your age group who also want a family ASAP, not waste your time going to art galleries, pubs and clubs hoping that maybe you'll meet your future partner there. For this demographic dating apps are the only way to optimize for dates, especially if you're a man working in male dominated fields with male dominated hobbies. Which is why the majority of dating apps users are Millennials. Students and people in their early twenties have a lot more options for IRL dating than apps.
>Women get all the low-effort displays, men get no responses and spiral into low-effort displays.
And you think the results of romantic interactions between opposite sexes in bars and pubs is THAT much different? If you as a man approach all the women in the club you find attractive, how do you think it's gonna work out for both of you? Unless you're Henry Cavill, it's gonna be similar to dating apps: women getting too much unwanted attention and men getting only rejections.
