I don't think the fact that OkC now has paid features invalidates their (sadly deleted) blog post. With OkC, you can still match up with someone and accomplish what you intend to (finding dates/partners) without pulling out your credit card. Some of the paid features might (and might not) make it easier or more efficient to find a partner, but you don't need to pay them to get value out of the site. The argument in the blog post is against sites that require you to pay to do anything meaningful with the site, and I think that point holds.

The reason they deleted that blog post was because they were bought by Match.com

Not debating that; that's obviously the case, but really has nothing to do with the point I'm making.

It has nothing to do with paying vs free.

The issue is websites like match keeping profiles that are inactive or can't reply back.

"The issue is websites like match keeping profiles that are inactive or can't reply back."

I found Match to be very guilty of that. and on the app side, Bumble is the worst. Saw someone I knew from elsewhere on Bumble and I asked her about it. She seemed kind of surprised and said that she hadn't used it in almost a year. others have reported that too.. Bumble clearly leaves fake or abandoned profiles there for people to swipe on. it's very deceptive.