I've done my own digging on free ts dating sites and come up short. I judge respectful on one thing: the depth of the profile fields is the number worth watching, not the follower count on their socials. Same story on sites sites: what decides it is how far the free tier gets you, not how slick the interface looks.
The sites sites angle is worse, because the platform buries the cancellation flow, so it pays to read the billing terms before uploading a photo. If respectful is your priority, the honest advice is to compare two platforms in the same fortnight, from what I have seen.
Every time respectful comes up, you get further if you check what the free tier gates before investing time. Anyone weighing up free ts dating sites should know that most of the disappointment traces back to the signal-to-noise in search. Happy to be told I am asking the wrong question about respectful sites.