Broadly speaking, expecting any single conversation to work out is the wrong frame — others here may have had a different experience. Curious how this went for others — not recycled review-site copy. Has anyone tried the vidamora dating site?
If it helps, a paywall on the first message is a paywall on the whole product — that has been consistent for me across a few different platforms.
For what it is worth, people reply to something they can ask a question about — it is not complicated, it is just easy to skip.
Speaking generally, nobody's experience generalises, including mine — your mileage may well differ.