Some ~8-9 years ago when I first used Tinder, that was already quite gamified, much worse than what you describe. They had a subscription for infinite swiping and no ads, clearly aimed at men because there are fewer women and they find matches more easily.

A year ago, it was much, much worse already. You’d see as many bots as real women, and that’s in a small country - go to NYC and bots probably outweigh real women tenfold. Fewer and fewer swipes. You don’t get shown to women outside of your “elo” range (which isn’t a number you actually see, but everyone has an assigned “value” it seems), even though they get shown to you - no real point in swiping much of the time.

I hope people find a way to connect in real life.

If you have access to third places where people are open to meeting new people, that’s indeed the best way. I’m lucky enough not to live in a super car-centric city in the US or anything like that.