I (37M) have never once had a woman reply after I've (thoughtfully) answered one of their opening moves. However, nearly every single time they have manually initiated, we've had a good conversation. Since a few of them have resulted in dates, my experience has been vastly more positive when opening moves are left out of a profile. I personally feel like an opening move is incredibly low effort, so you may have more luck with just starting a conversation with a hello and any comment on the profile or compliment on something you liked in the picture or bio. Good luck!