IMO Apps were never good for anything beyond a hookup, I remember the days you had to type a woman a message on POF or OKcupid and be creative, Apps got rid of them and made it soley about looks.
You mention POF and OkCupid. Dating websites primarily used on computers were a little bit different than the dating apps used on smartphones.
There's even a good case to be made that the dating websites from the time they were de-stigmatized (mid 2000s) until the creation of swipe apps (2012) were best used for casual sex and not for longer term relationships.
My response rate to messages sent on POF and OkCupid was higher than my match rate on swipe apps. After match rate, then you have to consider response to messages rate (Tinder/Hinge) or Female First Messaging Rate (Bumble). Both of those rates would be lower than a match rate.
Looks are number 1 on apps but they were also quite important on dating websites. OkCupid put out plenty of data in the late 2000s/early 2010s that showed that looks were number 1.
TInder glory days were when you had unlimited swipes once they got rid of that it killed the app.
The early days of Tinder (late 2012-2013) were when it was most useful.
Our generation was at least trained to chase p00sy. This generation never learned to run game.
I don't know your age offhand but I think you are a 1980s era Millennial. You're in the first half of the Millennial generation.
I am a 40 year old man who has been in unmarried relationships and seducing women for 24 years.
In thinking about 1999-2005 as I experienced it (the last 2 years of high school and college -- this is when I was initially coming up), it was expected that men would approach women in person. While online dating websites existed in 1999-2005, they were mostly still stigmatized then as something only losers did. One of the biggest debates I remember from the early 2000s was whether or not dating websites were de-stigmatized. Neil Strauss' "The Game" was published in 2005 and most of the experiences from that are from roughly 2002-2005. There's a reason Strauss, Mystery, and other PUAs were mainly doing approaches in bars back then and weren't spamming messages on Match then.
In-person approaching has been de-emphasized and has faded a bit since the early 2010s or so. Gen Z has come of age with technology more mature. Millennials came of age for the most part as technological innovations were maturing. Gen Z members are less likely to have a lot of the in-person interactions skills that can help in the early stages of dating.
Imagine growing up getting no likes on a dating app..like ,being 14 the way to 20 never getting likes. This will mentally damage a man beyond repair. Our generation needs all kinds of mental gymnastics to keep some sanity and give this dating environment a a place. At least we can look back at many ,many adventures with plenty of women.
I agree that not getting Likes and not achieving any sort of success in tech-based dating will mentally damage a man. It would take a lot of psychological treatment to address the psychological issues that would stem from getting immense amounts of rejections on apps. These rejections can take on the form of a low match rate (most common) but also ghosting during messaging and the "1-2 dates, no sex, no extended relationship forming" type interactions too. All those events are mentally damaging.