There's lot of evidence of dating sites doing this, such as having people working for them to string male customers along for money. It's arguably fraud. There are also many other ways to take advantage of desperate or lonely men (or "picky" women with some marketing twists), such as suggesting or advertising to customers they pay even more money for things like "boost", "VIP", "gold membership", etc... These more costlier options also give an incentive to do fraudulent things like having paid (usually female) responders fake interest in paying customers (usually male) for a set time and then go ghost or flake.

Speaking of fraudulent, so are many of the profiles and descriptions, both male and female. Profiles and descriptions often are highly distorted, with out of control female hypergamy. Everybody trying to present themselves as better than the other or elite, even when they are average or below average in reality.

80% to 85% of the women on a site looking for the top 20% to 15% of men, thus many don't really qualify nor match up for what they are looking for. Consequently, such "lower ranking" women can get taken advantage of by the top 15% who run through them (sometimes at incredible numbers) or will never commit to them, then these angry hurt women take it out on all other men that had nothing to with their past. Thus they are "full of old scars", "super extra picky" or "flaky".

For all the time and money wasted on fake and distorted profiles, it's better to invest in getting over one's fear of rejection and learn how to approach people appropriately and have natural conversations. Find free ways to meet and talk, there are plenty, if a person puts their mind and effort into it. At least don't have online dating, especially costly sites, be the only option.