I think the bigger problem here is not just that people have trouble finding those experiences but that all the stuff is targeted at young people. We do some serious work on systemic agephobia and shift some of the cultural focus to People of Age if we want generations to connect.
I thought the pandemic showed us all that we don't need to pay anyone money to connect. We could just go for a walk together and talk. If that unnecessary massive part of the economy was to disappear, we would have more free time to connect, too.
Just taking a walk and talking with someone with no extra activity for me can be often tiring and not that fun if I don't know the person well.
Especially for dates I would rather spend even a fair bit of money to do something super fun rather then hope the conversation goes well.
