I haven't read through all of the posts on this thread
I think success on OLD apps, sites, etc. will also be heavily dependent upon your location. I could easily see some major metro area like NYC actually be a pretty decent place for something like this, though it make take quite a long time to truly find what you are looking for. It shouldn't be any surprise to have very limited or possibly even 0 options within your standards if you live in a rural community or a small city. In my current area, once you get past university age women the number of options drops off substantially in addition to the overall quality, thus one of the reasons I just don't even bother.
I think the biggest problem with OLD for men is that a woman they match with will literally have dozens or hundreds of other men that are messaging her at that given period of time. She's going to have many options and may honestly be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of them. She may otherwise be into you but there are a dozen other men that are roughly comparable. I think if you can actually get them to meet up is when your chance of success improves, but even this can often be a challenge. More often than not women may just be chatting with you but with it leading to nothing, this may not even be due to a lack of interest.
The biggest benefit of OLD is the sheer volume you can potentially be reaching out to and possibly meeting for a date. This just wouldn't be possible with real life interactions or approaches unless you are literally going out multiple nights per week to approach and talk to women. There's nothing wrong with doing this but you have to go OUT of your way and literally be spending hours into this hobby, whereas with OLD you can literally just swip through on your phone whenever and wherever.
If OLD is something you want to try, just be prepared for little to no success in a short period of time and don't expect anything out of it, just keep it as a side hobby that doesn't detract much from your life.
