They were “decent” 14 ish years ago. And they worked a fair amount. I know married friends who met on them.

That said the Internet in general has fallen off a cliff with enshitification…

I know people today that still use them and do ok.

“Free” anything is going to be complete shit.

Like anything else in life it takes work, during 8 months I was doing it I spent 10-15 hours on it. And that wasn’t “scrolling” profiles. I was constantly tweaking my profile, looking for was to improve it. Also when I did “match” someone I worked on my greetings, interesting things to say, etc.

I would even keep snippets of texts. (The one I was on had a question/answer part.

Dating is a lot of work for many people.