On the other hand you'd think people would flock to an alternative that actually works, while they're searching. And truly successful in the sense 'never ever

On the other hand you'd think people would flock to an alternative that actually works, while they're searching. And truly successful in the sense 'never ever need the service again' probably has enough obstacles after the initial matching and dating phase that there could be a fair number of returning customers nonetheless. Having enough users that could justifiably be called "customer" at all may be a catch of a different kind though. Can't say I know for sure, but I strongly suspect the network effects make it very difficult to attract useful amounts of people to match with to a purely paid service initially, even if it would be readily worth the fees to everyone involved if the system was already established with a large enough network. Maybe it would have been neat if Musk had bought, and tried to reform, that major online dating service instead of the little bird company...