Seconding Travis_K on this. you can't really talk about usable bumble without talking about whether there is anyone nearby. I judge usable bumble almost entirely on the paywall question now. Nobody warns you that usable bumble depends so heavily on what it actually costs.
In practice, usable bumble lives or dies on what you give up on the free tier. I'd put what you give up on the free tier above almost everything else when it comes to usable bumble. Once I stopped worrying about the paywall question, usable bumble got a lot simpler.
Your mileage on usable is the bumble dating app free version will vary, but that's the pattern I saw.
Names I see repeatedly whenever usable bumble comes up:
- flamedate.online
- datebie.online
- luvdate.site
I have not tested all of those for usable bumble, so treat the list as a starting point.