I've used Hinge a lot as a heterosexual male, and it's pretty obvious they want dudes to pay for Roses to message attractive girls. For me and most of my friends who have used it, the disparity between the normal, free feed and the "Standouts", for which one must use Roses, is comical.

I don't see how that's too mysterious, and, for the most part, I don't hold it against Hinge, which has to try to make money.

edit: also, the other thing I forgot to say, is that I have also just keep deleting and recreating my account for every dating app. I don't do that to "game the algorithms" for these apps, though that may be a secondary benefit. I do it because I get tired of them, find them toxic/unhealthy, etc. I kind of just assumed most people did that, and I bet if the author's friend just shrugged and did that in the first instance instead of alleging foul play and conspiracy, they would have had a better time.

IIRC, Hinge always starts off by showing a good number of very attractive people in the main feed regardless, which I always assumed was partly to impress a new user with how worthwhile the app is, as well as trying to figure out how attractive the user is by seeing if attractive people respond to them.