I respect your resilience to route around the points I'm trying to make. But being a contrarian for the sake of it isn't a good way to engage in fruitful discussions.

> And "find someone" is an activity that largely hasn't cost money for all but the last 15 years of human existence.

That's completely false. Courtship involved money since forever (and also paid dating apps are older than 15 years).

> People have never had trouble pairing up before.

People have always had trouble pairing up.

> People have always had trouble pairing up.

And dating apps have eliminated these problems? I posit that the old problems remain and dating apps have added new ones on top.

> Courtship involved money since forever

Courtship required, or at least benefited from, demonstrable financial stability. Because that's an attractive quality in a mate for many people. But that's no different from saying "Courtship involved looks|religion|health/fertility since forever".

Courtship didn't previously require paying an intermediary to engage in. There's a distinction here that you either can't or don't want to understand.

> also paid dating apps are older than 15 years

But only in the last 15 years have they taken over dating.