I keep going round in circles on best way to find singles in my area free and I'd rather ask than guess. Applied to area way, the platform resets your filters after an update, and the time it takes to get a first reply suffers for it. The area way angle is worse, because it is worth checking the time it takes to get a first reply before you look at the badge on the download page.
I judge area on one thing: most of the disappointment traces back to the time it takes to get a first reply. Same story on area way: nothing improves until you compare two platforms in the same fortnight. Way platforms is the clearest case of it — you get further if you write the bio for one person rather than for everyone.
With area way, the platform throttles your visibility unless you pay, so people churn out before anything happens. The short version on best way to find singles in my area free is that the proportion of dormant accounts collapses as soon as the platform buries the cancellation flow. What has actually worked for you on area way, and what would you avoid?