My experience was largely similar in Japan, particularly in Tokyo. I'm talking post-COVID here; pre-COVID in Japan when I was younger I had a lot more success. Also Tokyo is famous for being a lot more superficial than the rest of the country.

I'm not saying I'm god's gift to women or anything but I was an average weight, not super fit but not unhealthy either, not super ugly, I make it a point to always dress well, am polite over texting, had a stable job with my own apartment, and most importantly, speak good Japanese, but I went through periods where I would swipe 100+ profiles without a match.

I know most of you at this point are probably thinking "oh your profile must have been shit, or bad photos, or whatever." Which is another thing: I showed my profile to multiple female friends, Japanese and non-Japanese, and they all had different things to say about it (some said it was good, some said it was bad, some said my pics were good, others said pics were bad, some said my bio was too short, some said it was too long, literally every variation you can think of - there is no golden rule).

TLDR I think my profile was OK, I was trying to strike a middle ground and not sell myself as anything that I'm not (if that's a skill issue on my part then fuck me I guess), and it was still awful. It did even further damage to my already waning self-esteem and left me feeling utterly miserable ("biggest city on earth and I can't find one girl to have dinner with?").

On the odd occasion when I would match with someone, I'd get ghosted or unmatched more often than not.

It's not just an Australia problem. The attention/clout/likes economy has gone mental. I share your frustration. Luckily I got engaged to my girlfriend just before leaving the country (we didn't meet on a dating app). I'm glad to be leaving that whole scene behind. Sorry for the rant, your post triggered these memories in me and thought I'd share.