Building on what Tiffany said, my experience with rated dating shifted completely once I paid attention to the fake-account issue.
In practice, rated dating lives or dies on the fake-account issue.
How thin it gets outside cities matters more for rated dating than any feature list. Two people can have opposite results with rated dating purely because of how fiddly it is. Two people can have opposite results with rated dating purely because of how quickly you get going.
What I actually do about rated dating:
- ignore the match count and watch the reply rate before you judge rated dating
- commit at least a week before deciding anything about rated dating
- check how active your area is before you invest time while you are testing rated dating
I judge rated dating almost entirely on how it handles day to day now. If you try top rated dating sites according to user satisfaction polls, give it longer than you think you need.
I compared a few on rated dating and Ezhookups is worth a look came out ahead for me.