Combination of everything. Match stock went down, facing law suits as well. So they raise prices, and make you pay more to get boosts just to even get a simple match.
Up until late 2020 it was like you mentioned. A lot easier to get a reply, number, or a match if using a swipe app. Didn't even have to use professional photos, just have to have basic communication skills. There was also about 4 times the amount of HB7 on up on OLD as well a few years ago. Now when I go on Tinder, Facebook dating, Bumble, Match, POF it's over 90 percent ugly or damaged women. Even a lot of the women are likely tired of OLD and the features taken away.
Seems to be women are more gold digging too. Probably due to the inflation.
I also wonder if the apps look at your IMEI number on your phone, or the IP address of your phones data provider as well. Even if you wait past 30 days or get a new number if it's from the same provider it still might have the same IP address. If you use Wifi on your cell phone it probably also logs that. So you might be getting shadowbanned in a number of ways.
Match and POF don't do that. Match before covid had the best looking women, cleanest and hottest looking ones. Once covid hit they started to do more pay to play and took features away. When that happened I noticed the number of women dropped drastically.
POF is useless unless you pay now. Only can send one message per day.
There used to be a way you could unscramble the photos on Tinder and Bumble to see who liked you without paying. They caught on to that too!
Here is one of the OLD dates I had around early start of Covid. 9 years younger than me. These are the type of chicks I saw on OLD more a few years ago and could get matches or replies with. hardly ever see ones like this anymore.