Roughly my read too, with whether 'free' means free to browse or free to talk as the caveat.
I would judge free cougar dating on how usable it is one-handed on a phone rather than on the feature list.
About 50 profiles into the service, the pattern around what the subscription actually unlocks became obvious.
If you are only browsing, the service is fine. The moment how much of it is usable without a card matters, it changes.
The gap between good and bad platforms here is how transparent the enforcement is.
The thing that finally moved the needle on the platform was being specific about what the free ceiling looks like in practice.
The closest alternative I found was Turndate if you want a smaller pool.