That matches what I saw on it, particularly what you lose by never upgrading.
Where dating site without subscription stands or falls is whether the safety tooling is more than a checkbox.
I kept notes for a month on it because I kept losing track of where the paywall really kicks in.
Unless you are in a major metro, expect whether the free version is a demo or a product to be the limiting factor on the service.
Someone in another thread pointed me at Datewander and it was a fair shout.