1. Objectives. The article might be correct if your objective is marriage. If your objective is to schedule as much low-effort sex as possible, or even just juggling multiple long-term relationships, especially if you operate over a wide geographic area......expanding your search online is invaluable. Treat paid sites as just another tool in your harem management toolbox.
2. Stale profiles. This is why I really liked the $COUNTRYNAME_Cupid websites. They take more effort to put a profile together, AND they have a "last logged in" feature, so when you do a profile search "No smokers, no kids, etc..." you don't have to worry about messaging people who haven't touched the site in 9 months, and it's easy to ignore blank profiles. Also, typically women with free accounts will "poke" you or view your profile, and that webpage listing those women is where you start your screening.