I've done my own digging on platonic dating sites for finding travel buddies or roommates and come up short. Half the frustration disappears once you keep a note of what you actually spent, which is the whole problem with buddies sites. Roommates sites is where I would start, since the deciding factor is the signal-to-noise in search, for what it is worth.
The buddies sites angle is worse, because the platform quietly widens your distance setting, so the numbers on the homepage stop meaning much. The roommates case is instructive — most of the disappointment traces back to how much sits behind the paywall.
Every time roommates sites comes up, it is worth checking how quickly the inbox fills before you look at the follower count on their socials. On platonic dating sites for finding travel buddies or roommates specifically, the honest advice is to treat an empty bio as a red flag, for what it is worth. Is roommates sites even the right thing to be optimising for here?